JUN  141910 


LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 

Class 


THE    TEACHING    OF  LATIN 
IN  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 


By  EUGENE  A.  HECKER 

Master  in  the  Roxbury  Latin  School 


THE  SCHOENHOF  BOOK  COMPANY 

128  Tremont  Street 
BOSTON    (MASS.) 


GENERAL 


Copyright  1909 

by 
Eugene  A.  Hecker 


Caustic  Claflin  Company 
Cambridge,  Mass.. 


OF  THE 
UNIVERSITY 

OF 


CHAPTER    I 

The  keynote  of  modern  pedagogy  is  a  protest  against 
tradition,  whether  in  subject-matter  or  in  methods  of 
presentation.  I"?o  subject  of  instruction  has,  when  com- 
pared with  other  studies  of  the  curriculum,  so  long  a 
tradition  behind  it  as  has  Latin.  Inasmuch  as  every 
study  in  our  modern  system  of  education  must,  as  is 
fitting,  prove  its  ability  to  secure  a  definite  result  of 
actual  worth,  we  shall  first  attempt  to  ascertain  what 
credentials  it  needs  to  present  to  prove  its  right  of  ad- 
mission as  a  subject  of  instruction. 

Unless  a  study  can  be  correlated  with  something  in 
the  lives  of  our  pupils  —  we  are  dealing  with  boys  and 
girls  of  high-school  age  —  then  that  study  is  useless; 
as  idle  as  the  inquiries  of  Tiberius  at  Capri  when  he 
wished  to  discover  what  song  it  was  that  the  Sirens 
sang.  It  is  true,  that  the  mere  fact  of  knowing  some- 
thing— All!  la  belle  chose  que  de  savoir  quelque  chose!  — 
may  enthuse  a  student  for  the  moment,  no  matter 
whether  the  thing  learned  has  some  connection  with 
vital  matters  or  not;  but  later,  when  he  perceives  its 
isolation, 'the  reaction  may  take  the  form  of  a  violent 
protest  against  the  whole  subject  of  which  the  mental 
gymnastic  was  a  part.  Of  this  fact  the  writer  can  recall 
two  instances,  the  one  connected  with  arithmetic,  the 
ottier  with  English  grammar.  His  teacher  in  arithmetic 
insisted  that  in  a  case  of  division  of  fractions  he  must 
not  invert  the  divisor  and  multiply,  but  work  instead  by 
the  method  of  finding  a  greatest  common  divisor.  The 
case  in  grammar  was  that  complex  system  of  "  diagram- 
ming "  a  sentence  by  countless  lines  and  sub-lines  until 


the  thing  looked  like  a  railroad  map ;  wherein  the  gram- 
matical interest  of  the  sentence  had  long  since  yielded 
to  its  possibilities  as  a  model  in  drawing.  Studies  and 
the  methods  employed  in  their  elucidation  must  pro- 
duce a  definite  and  practical  result;  if  their  aim  is  men- 
tal gymnastic  alone,  they  have  no  place  in  secondary 
schools.  They  may  yiel  a  return  in  dollars  and  cents ; 
or  they  may  explain  the  laws  of  nature  and  their  rela- 
tions to  our  bodies;  or  they  may  present  the  evolution 
of  the  races;  or  mould  character,  inculcate  ideals,  and 
develop  a  feeling  for  the  beautiful;  and  the  like.  But 
some  definite  and  practical  result,  bearing  directly  on 
life,  each  study  must  effect  before  we  can  admit  it. 

The  study  of  Latin  will  yield  no  particular  financial 
return.      Its   possible   benefits   may   be   embraced   under 
the  fojjowing  headings: 
~~ T.     A  thorough  knowledge  of  grammatical  principles. 

II.  A  correct  use  of  English,  'botlji  by  a  clearer  in- 
sight into  grammar  and  by  the  accurate  and  faithful 
translation  of  the  acknowledged  masterpieces  of  a  tongue 
quite  different  in  its  idioms  from  ours. 

IJI.     An  appreciation  of  good  literature. 

IV.  An   understanding  of   the   political,    social,    and 
religious  institutions  of  the  Roman  Empire  in  its  native 
vehicle,  the  Latin ''tongue ;  and  any  insight  into  a  differ- 
ent civilization,  especially  through  its  own  medium  of 
expression,  necessarily  broadens  the  view. 

V.  An  idea  of  the  profound  influence  of  Rome  on 
modern  literatures,  languages,  and  institutions;  a  grasp 
of  the  continuity  of  history  and  the  evolution   of  the 

•  races.      \ 

[t  is  evident  that  such  benefits  are  acceptable  in  a 
modern  system  of  education;  inasmuch  as  they  may 
mould  character ;  inspire  ideals ;  assist  correctness  in  the 
use  of  the  mother-tongue  and  of  modern  foreign  lan- 
guages; and  develop  the  logical  and  historical  faculty. 
Nevertheless,  we  must  confess  at  once  that  the  ad- 


vantages  enumerated  are  not  peculiar  to  Latin.  The 
accurate  study  of  a  modern  foreign  tongue  may  pro- 
duce the  first  three  effects  described  above;  and  the 
benefits  mentioned  under  IV  and  V  may  be  procured 
fairly  well  by  means  of  good  translations.  We  must 
inquire,  then,  in  what  respect  the  study  of  Latin  may 
have  special  advantages. 

A  knowledge  of  Latin  is  not  only  profitable,  but  in- 
dispensable to  two  classes  of  students:  I.  Those  who 
wish  to  study  any  European  literature  and  ^language 
with  reference  to  its  growth  and  sources;  II.  Those 
who  intend  to  study  history  from  the  original  sources. 
The  truth  of  my  first  assertion  I  take  as  obvious. A 

It  might  be  objected  to  my  .second  statement,  how- 
ever, that  here  translations  would  do.  So,  indeed,  they 
might,  if  they  existed.  But  we  must  remember  that  the 
use  of  Latin  in  diplomacy  did  not  die  out  until  the  close 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  when  French  took  its  place  ;B 
that  long  after  this  date  the  German  empire  insisted  that 
negotiations  with  itself  be  conducted  in  Latin;  and  that 
not  until  1825  did  Magyar  displace  Latin  in  ;the  debates 
of  the  Hungarian  Diet.  Latin  is  still  the  medium  of 
communication  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church.  The 


A  "  For  myself,"  remarks  Mr.  P.  W.  H.  Myers,  "  I  am 
no  fanatical  advocate  of  a  classical  education,  —  a  form  of 
training  which  must  needs  lose  its  old  unique  position  now 
that  there  is  so  much  else  to  know.  But  for  one  small  class 
of  students  such  an  education  still  seems  to  me  essential, 
for  those,  namely,  who  desire  to  judge  the  highest  poetry 
aright." 

B  The  following  great  scientific  works  were  written  in 
Latin : 

Newton's  Principia  — 1689. 

Burnet's   Theoria  Telluris   Sacra  — 1694. 

Ray's  Synopsis  Methodica  — 1693. 

Linnaeus  —  Systema  Naturae  —  1760. 

Leibnitz  [1646-1716]  was  the  last  great  philosopher  who 
habitually  employed  Latin  in  his  works. 


student   will   hardly   find   translations   of   all   the   Lathi 
above  mentioned ;  although  he  could  have  them  made  — 
if   he  were  a  millionaire;  but   in  this   case   we   should 
hardly  consider  him  a  great  authority. 

So  much  for  those  students  for  whom  Latin  is  very 
necessary.  The  two  groups  are  obviously  only  a  mi- 
nority. We  shall  inquire  next  what  benefits  the  pur- 
suit of  Latin  may  hold  for  a  pupil  who  would  like  to 
know  if,  for  example,  he  should  take  German  and 
French,  or  one  of  these  languages  and  Latin. 

A  correct  use  and  adequate  command  of  English  is 
as  desirable  in  business  as  in  literature;  and  there  is 
no  vehicle  more  fit  to  give  this  practical  benefit  than 
the  study  of  Latin.     For  Latin  is  severely  logical;  one 
may  not  read  without  taking  in  and  weighing  each  word. 
This  is  a  mental  stimulus  of  the  first  rank.     If  now  a 
faithful   attempt   is   made   to   render   as   adequately   as 
possible'  the    elegance    and    directness    of    Caesar,    the 
rhythm  and  periodic  flow  of  Cicero,  the  harmony  and 
majesty   of    Vergil,   one's    English   vocabulary    will   be 
enormously  broadened  and  the  command  of  expression 
and  the  style  bettered  many  fold.     It  seems  more  than 
an  accident  that  the  great  masters  of  style  of  English 
literature  j were  steeped  in  Latin — Milton^  De  Quincey, 
Burke,  Macaulay,  Gladstone,  Carlyle,  Gibbon.     French 
and  German  cannot  be  as  valuable  here  as  Latin,   for 
the   simple    reason   that   they    are    too   like   our    idiom 
and   demand   no   particular   mental,  effort,    if    the   dic- 
tidnary  js  'handy.   ;That  even  a  limited  study  of  Latin 
is   of   great   help   in'  understanding    English   grammar, 
I    am   confident    that    no    one    will    deny.'  .And    there 
can  be  no  doubt  that  one  who  has  mastered  his  Latin 
grammar  can  grasp  French,  Italian,  and  Spanish  gram- 
mar in  short  order;  so  that  some  Latin  will  do  no  harm 
even  to  the  student  who,  without  any  particular  liking 


for  it,  yet  purposes  to  enter  any  trade  or  profession 
where  the  knowledge  of  a  modern  tongue  will  be  of 
assistance. 

A  knowledge  of  Latin  is  certainly  a  powerful  help 
in  the  comprehension  of  the  various  terminologies  and 
methods  of  classification  of  the  natural  sciences,  of  law, 
of  medicine,  of  logic,  and  of  philosophy;  although  I  do 
not  agree  with  those  who  would  make  Latin  compulsory 
for  prospective  students  of  those  sciences.  But  the 
language  is  assuredly  of  assistance  in  many  ways.  The 
student  of  Latin  need  not  run  to  the  dictionary  to  find 
out  the  meaning  of  words  like  horticulture,  apiculture, 
magnanimous,  craniology,  cervical,  cardial,  labial,  lingual, 
carnivorous,  and  the  like.  ^And  Latin,  which  has  fur- 
nished English  with  a  vast  per- cent  of  its  words,  is  also 
an  aid  to  correct  spelling;  as  in  words  like  "  separate," 
"  missile,"  "  discern." 

Having  now  enumerated  the  advantages  of  Latin,  we 
shall  inquire  next  whether  it  should  be  a  compulsory 
study  at  any  time  or  throughout  the  course.  Will  it 
be  beneficial  to  every  boy  and  girl  without  distinction? 

No  one  study  is  fitted  for  every  mind.  The  aim  of 
education  should  be,  to  find  that  combination  of  studies 
which  shall  develop  each  individual  character  to  the 
end  for  which  Nature  has  fitted  it.  It  is  evident  that 
certain  subjects  are  so  intimately  bound  up  with  every 
branch  of  human  activity  that  they  must  be  compulsory; 
for,  lacking  them,  the  child  has  not  the  tools  for  ad- 
vancement. Such  are  reading  and  writing  of  English, 
arithmetic,  geography,  and  American  history  (including 
Civics).  When  we  get  outside  the  range  of  these 
•foundation  studies,  we  must  begin  to  exercise  a  choice; 
a  wide  field  is  presented;  and,  as  I  have  already  re- 
marked, the  individual  needs  now  to  work  out  the  place 
for  which  Nature  has  destined  him  in  the  social  order. 
It  is  for  this  reason  that  Industrial  Education  is  the 
greatest  pedagogical  movement  of  the  last  decade.  There 


is  no  point  in  forcing  Latin  upon  a  boy  whom  Nature 
has   intended   for  a  blacksmith.     There  are  some   who 
would  prescribe  Latin  for  such  a  one  for  "  culture  " 
whatever   that   is.      But   the  boy   who   is   taught   black- 
smithing  thoroughly,  who  is  inspired  with  a  desire  to 
produce  the  very  best  work,  who  is  led  to  contemplate 
his   trade   as   a   whole   which   he  may  be  privileged   to 
develop    further;    the   boy,   in   short,    who   has,   by   the 
study  of  blacksmithing,  acquired  the  power  to  produce 
and   to   express   himself;   that   boy   has   a   fair   culture. 
Others  believe  in   forcing  Latin  upon  all  alike  on  the 
ground  that  the  fact  of  wrestling  with  a  repugnant  study 
strengthens  the  will.     They  ought  to  prescribe  Sanskrit 
or  Hebrew.     The  remedy  for  the  prevalent  search  after 
easy  studies  is  not  to  prescribe  one  particular  sort,  but 
to  make  all  subjects  which  the  pupil  may  take  the  basis 
of  thorough  work,   demanding  real  and  earnest  effort. 
Latin  should  be   an   optional   study;   and  in  practice 
it  is  generally  so  in  our  public  schools,  since  the  student 
has  a  choice  of  several  courses,  such  as  the  Classical, 
the  Scientific,  the  Business,  some  of  which  require  Latin 
and  some  of  which  do  not  include  it.     Educators  are 
fond  of   attacking  non-classical   courses   for  their  lack 
of  results  in  system  and  mental  training.     This  is  not, 
however,  the  fault  of  non-classical  courses  per  se,  but 
because,   unfortunately,   the    subjects   of   those   courses 
have  not  in  the  past  been  taught  with  the  thoroughness 
that  has,  on  the  whole,  characterized  instruction  in  the 
Classics.     Any  subject  that  has   some  connection   with 
life   is   valuable   and   useful   if    taught    accurately   and 
thoroughly.     The  lack  of   scholarly  training  which   re- 
sulted for  a  time  in  Harvard  College  under  the  elective 
system  was  not  due  to  that  system  in  itself,  but  simply 
to   the   fact   that   courses   other   than   the   Classics   and 
Mathematics  were  not  yet  adjusted  to  scientific  peda- 
gogy and  undergraduates  therefore  did  a  minimum  of 
work  in  them.     However,   it  is  not  out  of  place   for 

6 


teachers  to  point  out  to  all  students  at  the  beginning  of 
their  high-school  career  that  Latin  will  not  hurt  any 
one,  no  matter  what  he  intends  to  be;  it  will  benefit, 
even  if  taken  but  one  year. 

Since  we  have  determined  what  the  advantages .  of 
Latin  are  and  have  argued  that  it  should  not  be  a  com- 
pulsory study,  it  will  now  be  our  purpose,  in  the  fol- 
lowing pages,  to  discuss  the  grammar  to  be  mastered, 
the  authors  to  be  read,  and  those  methods  of  presenta- 
tion which  shall  develop  the  subject  in  its  highest  degree 
of  usefulness  and  inspiration.  -It  must  be  our  aim  to 
emphasize  the  essential  and  to  pass  lightly  over  the  less 
important  —  Wic  ivolltc  ciner  als  Meister  in  seinem  Fach 
crschcincn,  ivenn  er  nichts  Unnutzes  lehrte!  [Goethe: 
Spriiche  in  Prosa.]  Our  ideal  is,  to  develop  the  greatest 
amount  of  interest  in  the  pupil  and  to  have  him  derive 
the  greatest  profit,  without,  at  the  same  time,  losing 
sight  of  the  fundamental  principles  of  accuracy  and 
thoroughness.  Nothing  can  stand  without  these  elements 
as  a  foundation. 


CHAPTER    II 

Before  we  comment  on  the  teaching  itself  of  Latin, 
it  w,ill  be  well  to  consider  representative  schedules  in 
that  subject  as  they  exist  to-day  in  Germany,  in  France, 
in  England,  and  in  the  United  States;  and  to  these  pro- 
grammes we  shall  append  the  courses  of  study  of  three 
great  schoolmasters  of  the  Renaissance  —  Vittorino  da 
Feltre,  John  Sturm,  and  Roger  Ascham.  This  will  pave 
the  way  more  clearly  for  a  discussion  of  authors  to  be 
read  and  methods  to  be  employed  to-day. 


I.     GERMAN  SCHOOLS 

The  programs  of  German  schools  in  which  Latin 
is  taught  may  well  be  illustrated  by  the  following 
examples : 

PROGRAM    OF  THE   "  GYMNASIEN  "    IN    PRUSSIA 


VI 

V 

IV 

# 

U  III 

* 
OIII 

t 
UII 

t 
on 

UI 

t 
OI 

j 

1 

Religion 

3 

2 

2 

2 

2 

2 

2 

2 

2 

1< 

German  and    His- 
torical Anecdotes 

:i- 

2) 

J3 

3 

2 

2 

3 

3 

3 

3 

26 

Latin 

8 

8 

8 

8 

8 

7 

7] 

71 

71 

6£ 

Greek 

— 

— 

— 

6 

6 

6 

si 

6] 

el 

3( 

French 

— 

— 

4 

2 

2 

3 

3 

3 

3 

2C 

History 

— 

— 

2 

2 

2 

21 

3 

3] 

3 

17 

Geography 

2 

2 

2 

1 

1 

;l 

i 

S 

Mathematics 

4 

4 

4 

3 

3 

4i 

4 

4 

4] 

34 

Natural  Sciences 

2 

2 

2 

2 

2 

2J 

2 

2 

2J 

18 

Writing 

2 

2 

— 

— 

— 

— 

,  _ 

— 

— 

4 

Drawing 

— 

2 

2 

2 

2 

— 

— 

— 

— 

8 

TOTAL 

25 

25 

29 

30 

30 

30 

30 

30 

30 

259 

*  U  III  =  Unter-tertia  ;     O  III  =  Ober-tertia. 
t  U II  =  Unter-secunda  ;     O II  =  Ober-secunda. 
tUI  =  Unter-prima;    O  I  =  Ober-prima. 

The  course  is  nine  years  long. 


PROGRAM   OF  THE    "  REALGVMNASIEN  "   IN   PRUSSIA 


VI 

V 

IV 

UIII 

OHI 

UII 

Oil 

UI 

01 

j 

1 

Religion 

3 

2 

2 

2 

2 

2 

2 

2 

2 

19 

German   and   His- 
torical Anecdotes 

3) 

J4 

2) 

J3 

3 

3 

3 

3 

3 

3 

3 

28 

Latin 

8 

8 

7 

5 

5 

4 

4 

4 

4 

49 

9Q 

English 

— 

— 

— 

3 

3 

3 

3 

18 

History 

— 

— 

2 

2 

2 

2 

I3 

I3 

I3 

17 

Geography 

2 

2  ' 

2 

2 

2 

1 

1 

j 

1 

11 

Mathematics 

4 

4 

4 

5 

5 

5 

5 

5 

5 

42 

Natural  Science 

2 

2 

2 

2 

2 

4 

5 

5 

5 

29 

Writing 

2 

2 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

4 

Drawing 

— 

2 

2 

2 

2 

2 

2 

2 

2 

16 

TOTAL 

25 

25 

29 

30 

30 

30 

31 

31 

31 

262 

General  Aim:  A.  For  the  Gymnasium:  the  acqui- 
sition of  a  knowledge  of  the  most  important  classical 
writers  of  Rome,  based  on  a  firm  grammatical  founda- 
tion; and  by  these  means  an  appreciation  of  the  genius 
of  antiquity.  B.  For  the  Realgymnasium :  a  firm  gram- 
matical foundation  and  the  reading  of  the  easier  works 
of  Roman  literature. 


In  the  kealgymnasium  Caesar  alone  of  prose-writers 
is  read  for  three  successive  years,  from  Untertertia  to 
Untersecunda.  In  Untersecimda  a  few  selections  of 
Ovid's  Metamorphoses  are  read;  but  not  until  Ober- 
secunda,  that  is,  after  six  years  of  Latin,  may  Caesar 
give  way  to  selections  from  Curtius  or  Livy  or  one  of 
the  easier  orations  of  Cicero.  In  Prima,  passages  from 
Vergil's  "  Aeneid,"  the  easier  "  Odes  "  of  Horace,  and 
selections  from  the  "  Germania  "  of  Tacitus  are  read. 

The  Gymnasium  presents  a  somewhat  wider  range. 
But  here  also  Caesar  and  selections  from  the  Metamor- 
phoses are  alone  read  for  two  years.  The  program 
for  the  last  four  years  is  as  follows: 

Untersecunda:  Easier  Orations  of  Cicero  [e.g.,  pro 
S.  Roscio,  in  Catilinam,  de  imperio  Cn.  Pompei]  ;  selec- 
tions from  the  First  Decade  of  Livy;  Ovid  —  who  may 
be  replaced,  in  the  second  half-year,  by  Vergil's 
"  Aeneid."  Translation  at  sight,  'also  from  Caesar. 

Obersecunda:  Selections  from  Livy's  Third  Decade; 
Cicero's  Orations  [e.g.,  pro  Archia,  pro  Ligario,  pro 
rege  Deiotaro,  in  Caecilium] ,  and  the  Cato  Maior ;  Se- 
lections from  Sallust ;  Vergil's  "  Aeneid  "  in  such  se- 
lections as  shall  be  complete  in  themselves  and  yet  give 
an  idea  of  the  whole  work.  Sight  reading  to  suit  the 
occasion.  Memorizing  of  verses  from  Vergil. 

Unter-und-oberprima :  Cicero's  Orations  [e.g.,  in  Ver- 
rem  IV  or  V,  pro  Plancio,  pro  Sestio,  all  with  portions 
omitted,  pro  Murena]  ;  selections  from  Cicero's  letters 
and  philosophical  and  rhetorical  works ;  the  "  Germania  " 
of  Tacitus  —  at  least  as  far  as  ch.  27  —  also  the 
"  Agricola "  or  parts  of  the  "  Dialogue,"  as  well  as 
selections  from  the  "  Annals  "  —  especially  the  portions 
dealing  with  Germany  —  and  from  the  "  Histories  "  ; 
selections  from  Horace  and  memorizing  of  some  of  his 
odes. 

In  the  Gymnasien  of  Bavaria  Curtius  and  the  Elegiac 
Poets  are  found  with  Caesar  and  Ovid  as  early  as  the 

10 


fifth  class  —  obertertia  —  while  in  the  eighth  Quintilian 
appears  with  Cicero;  in  the  highest  class  Terence  and 
Plautus  accompany  the  Satires  and  Epistles  of  Horace. 
It  must  be  borne  in  mind,  of  course,  that  the  last  two 
years  of  the  Gymnasium  are  equivalent  to  the  first  two 
years  of  our  college  work.  People  are  not  usually 
aware,  that  the  study  of  the  Classics  has  been  violently 
assailed  in  Germany  during  the  past  decade;  and  the 
whole  curriculum  has  undergone,  and  is  still  undergoing, 
fundamental  changes.  Particularly  has  the  old  regime, 
which  made  grammar  and  composition  ends  in  them- 
selves, suffered  the  keenest  onslaughts ;  and  the  emphasis 
tends  more  and  more  to  be  placed  on  the  reading  of 
the  authors  with  the  purpose  of  gaining  an  appreciation 
of  the  genius  of  Rome ;  while  grammar  and  composition 
are  pursued  only  so  far  as  they  serve  as  tools  for  such 
study.  The  professional  student  will  find  the  following 
three  books  most  useful  to  consult  on  the  matter  —  books 
which  combine  a  clear  and  interesting  style  with  profound 
knowledge  of  the  whole  history  of  classical  studies : 

I.  Das  Unterrichtswesen  im  Deutschen  Reich.     Aus 
Anlass  dor  Weltausstellung  in  St.  Louis  unter  Mitwir- 
kung   zahlreicher    Fachmanner   herausgegeben   von    W. 
Lexis.     Zweiter  Band :  Die  hoheren  Lehranstalten  und 
das  Madchenschulwesen.     Berlin.     Verlag  von  A.  Asher 
und  Co.     1904. 

II.  F.  Paulsen :  Geschichte  des  gelehrten  Unterrichts 
auf  den  deutschen  Schulen  und  Universitaten  vom  Aus- 
gang  des  Mittelalters  bis  zur  Gegenwart.    Leipsig.    Ver- 
lag von  Veit  u.  Comp.     1896. 

III.  P.  Dettweiler :  in  A.  Baumeister's  Handbuch  der 
Erziehungs-und    Unterrichtslehre    fur    hohere    Schulen ; 
vol.   Ill  —  Didaktik  und  Methodik  der  einzelnen  Lehr- 
facher.     Miinchen,  1898.     C.  H.  Beck'sche  Verlagsbuch- 
handlung. 

ii 


II.    LATIN  IN  THE  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS  OF  FRANCE 

The  following  is  a  typical  program.  Child  begins 
at  eleven  years  of  age. 

First  year,  10  hours  per  week:  Latin  Grammar.  Ex- 
planation and  Recitation  of  Latin  authors. 

(Great  importance  is  attached  to  the  preparation  and 
explanation  of  the  texts.)  Latin  exercises,  especially 
oral,  and  written  composition.  Accent  and  quantity. 
Nouns,  adjectives,  pronouns,  verbs.  Instruction  in 
best  methods  of  translation.  Exercises  for  immediate 
translation  into  Latin  (the  teacher  reads  slowly  a  pas- 
sage of  French,  of  which  the  words  have  already  been 
seen  in  Latin,  and  the  pupils  render  it  into  Latin). 

Authors:  Epitome  Historiae  Graecre  (edition  adapted 
to  the  gradual  progress  of  the  pupils). 

De  viris  illustribus  urbis  Romae  (second  semester). 

Second  Year :  10  hours  per  week  during  first  semester ; 
8  hours  per  week  beginning  January  i. 

Grammar  —  syntax  completed;  word  formation  (prim- 
itive and  derived  words).  Elements  of  prosody  (hex- 
ameter, pentameter,  iambic).  French  translated  into 
Latin,  oral  and  written  themes.  Biographies  of  authors 
studied.  Memory  work. 

Authors:  De  viris  illustribus  Urbis  Romse  (first 
semester) . 

Selectae  a  profanis  scriptoribus  historiae  (edition 
adapted  to  gradual  progress  of  pupils). 

Cornelius  Nepos   (second  semester). 

Phaedrus:  Selected  Fables   (second  semester). 

Justin:  Extracts. 

Third  Year:  5  hours  per  week. 

Grammar  —  review,  and  comparison  of  Latin  and 
French  constructions.  Prosody,  word-formation,  com- 
position, biography  of  authors  continued.  Pupils  are 

12 


encouraged  to  read  additional  Latin  out  of  class,  es- 
pecially to  read  further  in  the  authors  of  the  preceding 
year. 

Authors:  Cornelius  Nepos  (first  semester). 

Caesar:  de  Bello  Gallico. 

Cicero :  de    Senectute. 

Quintus  Curtius :  Selections. 

Vergil :  Aeneid  —  I,  II,  and  III. 

Ovid:   Metamorphoses    (selections). 

Fourth  Year:  5  hours  per  week. 

Grammar  —  review.  Prosody  and  composition.  Brief 
instruction  in  literary  history  in  connection  with  the 
texts  read.  Written  and  oral  criticism  of  passages  taken 
from  Latin  writers  of  prose  and  verse. 

Authors:  Narrationes  (reading  of  extracts,  taken 
chiefly  from  Livy). 

Cicero :  Catilines  I,  II,  III,  IV.     Archias. 

Sallust:  Extracts. 

Dramatic  Writers:  Extracts. 

Vergil:    Georgics    (chiefly   the   Episodes);   Aeneid  - 
IV  and  VIII. 

Anthology  of  Latin  Poetry  (excluding  works  com- 
prised in  the  program). 

Fifth  Year:  9  hours  per  week. 

Exercises  in  prosody;  study  of  the  principal  metres 
of  Horace.  Themes  and  exercises  in  Latin.  Outline  of 
the  history  of  Latin  Literature  —  10  lectures  of  an  hour 
apiece  arranged  as  follows: 

1.  Earliest  times  of  Latin  Literature;  first  attempts 
at  poetry  under  the  influence  of  Greece. 

2.  The  comic  poets. 

3.  Cicero. 

4.  Poetry  in  the  time  of  Cicero. 

5.  The  great  historians. 

13 


6.  The  poets  of  the  Augustan  Age. 

7.  Seneca  —  the  two  Plinys  —  Quintilian. 

8.  Epic  poets  after  Vergil. 

9.  Satirists   (poets)   after  Horace. 

10.  Last  period  of  Latin  literature  —  Christian  Lit- 
erature. 

Authors:  Cicero:  de  Suppliciis,  de  Signis.  Somnium 
Scipionis. 

Livy :  One  book  of  the  Third  Decade. 

Tacitus:  Agricola.     Germania. 

Pliny  the  Younger :  Selected  Letters. 

Latin  Dramatists:  Selections. 

Vergil:  Aeneid  IX  to  XII.     Bucolics. 

Horace :  Odes. 

Anthology  of  Latin  Poetry  (excluding  works  already 
comprised  in  the  program). 

Sixth  Year :  4  hours  per  week. 

Composition  and  themes  in  Latin.  Literary  criticisms 
of  Latin  authors. 

Authors:  Cicero:  Select  Letters.  Milo.  Murena. 
Selections  from  his  rhetorical  and  philosophical  works. 

Livy :  A  book  of  the  Third  Decade. 

Seneca:  Selections  from  his  Letters  to  Lucilius  and 
Ethical  Treatises. 

Tacitus:  Annals.    Histories.     Dialogus  de  Oratoribus. 

Lucretius :  Selections. 

Vergil. 

Horace :  Satires  and  Epistles. 

Lucan:  Selections. 

Anthology  of  Latin  Poets  as  above. 

Pupils  finish  the  above  course  at  the  age  of  sixteen. 
Ought  it  not  give  food  for  thought  to  teachers  of 
Latin?  If  boys  can  do  that  between  the  ages  of  eleven 
and  sixteen,  doesn't  it  seem  a  pretty  feeble  result  that 
the  American  student  effects  so  little  between  the  ages 


of  fourteen  and  nineteen?  Note,  too,  the  fact  that  in- 
struction in  Latin  in  France  does  not  consist  merely  in 
translating  and  doing  nothing  else  day  after  day;  a 
knowledge  of  the  authors  and  their  places  in  literature 
receives  reasonable  attention.  Perhaps  that  is  one  rea- 
son why  no  German  or  American  doctor's  thesis  can 
usually  compare  in  artistic  excellence  and  scholarly  treat- 
ment with  the  thesis  of  the  Docteur-es-Lettres. 

Before  discussing  the  subject  further,  I  shall  men- 
tion some  books  which  will  give  the  teacher  an  authori- 
tative and  minute  account  of  the  status  of  Latin  in  the 
secondary  schools  of  France : 

I.  Instructions  concernant  les  programmes  de  1'En- 
seignement  Secondaire  Classique — Paris,  Delalain  Freres 
—  56  Rue  des  Ecoles. 

II.  Programmes    de    1'Enseignement    Secondaire.  — 
Delalain  Freres  (as  above). 

III.  La   Reforme    de    1'Enseignement    Secondaire  — 
par  A.  Ribot.     Armand  Colin  et  Cie.  —  Paris,  5  rue  de 
Mezieres  (see  especially  pp.  71-88). 

IV.  La  Reforme  de  1'Enseignement  Secondaire  ex- 
pliquee  aux  Families,  par  H.  Vinbert.     Paris,  Librairie 
Nony  et  Cie.,  63  Boulevard  Saint-Germain. 

From  the  report  of  the  Minister  of  Education  I  wish 
to  translate  certain  passages  which  shall  show  clearly 
the  revolution  which  is  going  on  in  the  teaching  of 
Latin.  It  is  but  a  question  of  time  when  these  new 
ideas  must  prevail  in  the  United  States.  "  The  essential 
aim  of  secondary  education,"  writes  M.  Leon  Bourgeois, 
"  is  obviously  the  harmonious  development  of  the  mind. 
Between  primary  instruction,  which  is  immediately  con- 
cerned with  the  acquisition  of  knowledge  directly  use- 
ful, and  the  higher  instruction,  which  aims  to  produce 
scholars,  that  is,  men  capable  of  research  in  a  particular 
line  of  studies,  secondary  education  occupies  a  middle 
place.  It  strives  to  form  good  minds  (de  bons  esprits) 
strengthened  by  a  very  general  culture.  It  does  cer- 

15 


tainly  give  the  pupils  knowledge  both  exact  and  useful, 
but  above  all,  it  teaches  good  habits.  It  has  no  particu- 
lar profession  in  view ;  but  it  allows  them  to  touch  upon 
all  with  a  basis  of  intellectual  and  moral  soundness  which 
alone  permits  one  to  excel  in  any  of  them. 

The  study  of  ancient  languages  in  secondary  educa- 
tion must,  therefore,  be  subordinated  to  these  essential 
ideas.  We  are  not  concerned  about  making  professional 
Latinists  and  Hellenists.  We  demand  of  Greek  and 
Latin  only  that  they  contribute  their  share  to  the  general 
education  of  the  mind. 

The  methodical  study  of  a  language  necessarily  com- 
prises three  kinds  of  exercises  and  tasks :  ( I )  the  study 
of  grammatical  theory;  (2)  written  exercises  in  transla- 
tion and  composition;  (3)  reading  and  explanation  of 
texts.  It  is  clear  that  the  reading  of  the  texts  is  the 
capital  point.  The  study  of  grammatical  theory  can 
doubtless,  in  skilful  and  discreet  hands,  become  by  itself 
a  useful  instrument  of  intellectual  culture;  it  accustoms 
the  mind  to  reflect,  to  grasp,  to  compare ;  but  it  is  above 
all  a  practical  means  of  getting  at  the  literary  apprecia- 
tion of  the  texts.  Written  exercises,  again,  are  indis- 
pensable in  order  to  give  to  knowledge  of  grammar  all 
its  solidity,  all  its  precision,  all  its  nicety;  they  are,  be- 
sides, a  powerful  instrument  of  formal  culture  for  the 
intelligence;  but  they  cultivate  and  refine  the  mind 
rather  than  nourish  it.  This  necessary  nourishment  is 
given  to  youthful  minds  above  all  by  the  reading  of  the 
texts  and  by  the  various  exercises  connected  therewith. 
The  profit  derived  from  the  texts  is  two-fold.  In  the 
first  place,  they  are  the  ever-living  tradition  of  the  human 
mind,  by  means  of  which  the  present  is  connected  with 
the  past;  they  cause  the  child  to  see  the  road  that  all 
humanity  has  traversed ;  and  by  making  him  acquainted 
with  his  ancestors  they  confer  on  him,  literally,  their 
true  titles  of  intellectual  nobility.  In  the  second  place, 
they  are,  for  a  large  part,  models;  they  initiate  into  an 

16 


acquaintance  with  the  true,  the  good,  the  beautiful ;  they 
awaken  in  his  soul  a  feeling  of  active  and  fruitful  love 
for  all  the  things  comprised  in  these  three  words;  they 
enrich  and  strengthen  his  very  being,  that  is  to  say,  they 
accomplish  to  an  eminent  degree  the  work  which  is  the 
essential  object  of  secondary  education." 

Thus  does  the  keen  Frenchman  rise  above  the  ideal 
of  a  gerund-grinder;  and  the  results  justify  him.  If 
there  be  a  doubting  Thomas,  let  him  compare  the  work 
of  French  and  German  scholars;  for  example,  Renan 
and  Harnack,  Croiset  and  Christ.  In  both  German  and 
Frenchman  we  note  that  profound  and  minute  scholar- 
ship, the  painstaking  research  to  which  humanity  must 
be  forever  indebted.  But  the  German  is  heavy  in  style, 
not  always  clear  in  arrangement;  the  Frenchman  com- 
bines with  his  learning  the  elegance,  the  perspicuity,  and 
the  artistic  form  which  makes  the  perusal  of  his  work 
an  inspiration  even  to  the  uninitiated. 

III.     ENGLISH  SCHOOLS 

I. shall  take  Harrow  as  the  type  of  an  English  Classical 
School.  No  boy  may  enter  before  twelve  nor  after 
fourteen ;  and  the  rudiments  of  Latin  are  supposed  to 
have  been  studied  before  entrance.  Just  as  in  Germany 
Latin  is  pursued  more  extensively  in  the  gymnasien, 
which  keep  the  old  classical  tradition,  than  in  the  real- 
gymnasien,  which  omit  Greek  and  take  more  science  and 
modern  tongues  instead ;  so  the  program  at  Harrow  is 
divided  into  the  Classical  Side  and  the  Modern  Side. 
The  schedule  of  the  Classical  Side  runs  as  follows: 

Upper  Sixth :  7  to  8  hours  for  all  boys ;  2  to  3  hours 
more  for  some  boys.  Cicero  in  Verrem  Actio  I. 
Vergil  —  Aeneid  VIII.  Composition  exercises  one 
or  two  hours.  Average  age  of  boys,  eighteen. 

17 


Lower  Sixth:  the  same.    Age  (average),  17  years. 

Fifth  Head  Remove:  4  hours.  Vergil  —  Aeneid  XL 
Livy  I,  1-26.  At  least  3  hours  of  prose  composition. 
Average  age,  16  years. 

Fifth  Second  Remove :  4^/2  hours  Vergil  and  Livy  the 
same.  Horace,  Odes  IV,  i-io.  Average  age,  16 
years. 

Fifth  Third  Remove :  4  hours  Vergil  and  Livy  the  same. 
Arnold's  Prose  (Bradley),  ex.  29-43.  Weekly 
Grammar  Paper.  Also  one  hour  prose  composition. 
Average  age,  16  years. 

Upper  Remove:  6  hours  Walford's  Cicero,  20  pages. 
Horace,  Odes  I  or  800  lines  of  Vergil.  Prose  com- 
position, il/2  hours.  Average  age,  15  years. 

Lower  Remove :  7  hours  Cicero  and  Horace  the  same. 
Prose  composition,  2^  hours.  Champney  and 
Roundell's  Easy  Passages.  Arnold's  Prose.  Gram- 
mar, iJ/2  hours.  Verses,  2  hours.  Average  age, 
15  years. 

Upper  Shell :  7  hours.  Horace,  Odes  I,  or  Caesar  de 
Bell.  Civ.  I.  Two  grammar  lessons.  Prose  and 
Exercises,  2l/>  hours.  Average  age,  15  years. 

Second  Shell:  7  to  7^  hours.  Prose,  i^4  hours.  Caesar, 
Bell.  Civ.  I,  2  hours  —  21  chapters.  Ovid,  300  or 
400  lines  —  2  hours.  Grammar,  yz  hour.  Unseen 
translation,  y4  to  \y2  hours.  Average  age,  15  years. 

Third  Shell :  6  hours.     Same.    Age,  14  years. 

Fourth  Head  Remove :  6l/2  hours.  Translation,  Hardy's 
Reader,  pp.  28-38,  3  hours.  Ovid,  one  hour  (Tay- 
lor's Selections,  200  lines).  Prose,  2  hours  — easy 
continuous  passages  —  short  sentences.  Grammar, 
V2  hour  —  Accidence  and  Elements  of  Syntax.  Av- 
erage age,  1 4, years. 

Fourth  Second  Remove:  Same,  except  less  translation. 
Age,  14  years. 

Fourth  Third  Remove:  Same.     Age,  14  years. 

18 


The  Schedule  of  the  Modern  Side  is  as  follows: 

Modern  Sixth :  4  hours.     Vergil,  Eclogues  and  part  of 

Georgics   IV.     Lucretius,   part  of   Book  I.     Latin 

Prose.     (Also  i  or  2  hours  with  Tutor.)     Average 

age,   17  years. 

Modern  Fifth  Head  Remove:  Same.     Age,  17  years. 
Modern    Fifth    Second    Remove:    3    hours.      Vergil  - 

Aeneid,  XII.    Latin  Prose.     (Also  I  or  2  hours  with 

Tutor.)     Age,   16  years. 

.Modern  Fifth  Third  Remove:  Same.    Age,  16  years. 
Modern  Remove:  3  hours.     Vergil  —  Aeneid  II.     (Also 

Ovid's  Fasti,   i  hour  with  Tutor.)     Age,   15  years. 
Modern  Upper  Shell:  3  hours.     Ovid:  Metamorphoses. 

Latin  Prose.      (Also   i   hour  of  Ovid's  Fasti  with 

Tutor.)     Average  age,  15  years. 
Modern  Second  Shell:  2%  hours.     Crustula,  20  pages. 

(Fasti  with  Tutor,  i  hour.)     Age,  16  years. 
Modern  Third  Shell :  Same.     Age,  15  years. 
Modern   Fourth   Head   Remove:    3^4    hours.      Epitome 

Historic  Graecse,  ch.  64-82.     Prose  and  Grammar. 

Selections  from  Ovid.     (One  hour  also  with  Tutor.) 
,  Age,  14  years. 
Modern  Fourth  Remove:  Same.     Age,  14  years. 

IV.     AMERICAN  SCHOOLS 

I  shall  give  representative  schedules  of  public,  private, 
and  Jesuit  Schools  in  the  United  States. 

A.     Program  of  the  Boston    Latin  School  —  a  six  years 

course. 

Class  VI:  5  hours  a  week.  i.  Regular  forms,  with 
simple  exercises  illustrating  their  use.  2.  a.  Oral  and 
written  translation  of  easy  Latin  into  English,  b.  Un- 
prepared translation  of  easy  Latin  with  the  help  of  the 
teacher.  3.  a.  Reading  aloud^  copying,  and  writing 
from  dictation  Latin  simple  in  construction  and  com- 

19 


posed  of  words  familiar  to  the  pupils,     b.     Simple  oral 
and  written  translations  of  English  into  Latin. 

Class  V:  5  hours  per  week.  i.  Forms  and  construc- 
tions with  exercises  thereon.  2.  Oral  and,  occasionally, 
written  translation  into  idiomatic  English  of  (a)  easy 
Latin,  (6)  books  I,  II,  and  III  of  Caesar's  Gallic  War. 

(c)  Unprepared  translation  of  easy  Latin.     3.        (a) 
Reading  aloud,  copying,  and  writing  from  dictation  fa- 
miliar passages  from  Caesar.     (b)     Repeating  aloud  or 
writing  passages  from  Caesar  that  have  been  carefully 
studied   and   committed   to   memory.     4.     English   into 
Latin,  including  simple  oral  and  written  exercise  based 
upon  passages  from  Caesar. 

Class  IV:  5  hours  per  week.  i.  Oral,  and,  occa- 
sionally, written  translation,  at  least  (a)  of  books  IV 
and  V  of  Caesar's  Gallic  War;  (b)  of  1000  lines  of 
Ovid,;  and  (c)  of  book  I  and  part  of  II  of  the  Aeneid. 

(d)  Unseen    translation    of    average    passages    from 
Caesar  and  of  the  easier  passages  from  Ovid.     2.     (a) 
Writing  from  dictation  and  committing  to  memory  pas- 
sages from  Caesar,     (b)     Reading  metrically  and  com- 
mitting  to  memory  passages   from   Ovid.      3.     English 
into  Latin,  including  oral  and  written  exercises  based 
upon  passages  from  Caesar  or  upon  other  Latin  prose 
that  the  pupils  have  translated  into  English. 

Class  III:  5  hours  per  week.  Oral  and,  occasionally, 
written  translation  (a)  of  the  remainder  of  book  II  and 
the  whole  of  III,  IV,  and  V  of  the  Aeneid;  (b)  of 
Sallust's  Catiline;  and  (c)  of  at  least  one  of  Nepos's 
Lives,  (d)  Unprepared  translation  of  average  pas- 
sages from  Caesar,  and  of  the  easier  passages  from  Sal- 
lust,  Nepos,  and  Vergil.  2.  (a)  Writing  from  dic- 
tation and  committing  to  memory  passages  from  Sallust 
or  Nepos.  (b)  Reading  metrically  and  committing  to 
memory  passages  from,  Vergil.  3.  English  into  Latin, 
including  oral  and  written  exercises  based  upon  passages 
from  Caesar,  Sallust,  or  Nepos. 


20 


Class  II :  4  hours  per  week.  Oral  and,  occasionally, 
written  translations  (a)  of  at  least  three  more  books  of 
the  Aeneid  and  the  Eclogues  of  Vergil;  (b)  of  at  least 
four  orations  of  Cicero;  and  (c)  some  of  Nepos's  Lives. 
(d)  Unprepared  translation  of  average  passages  from 
Caesar  and  Nepos,  and  of  the  easier  passages  from  Ver- 
gil and  Cicero.  2.  (a)  Writing  from  dictation  and 
committing  to  memory  passages  from  the  prose  writers 
studied;  and  (b)  reading  metrically  and  committing  to 
memory  passages  from  Vergil.  3.  English  into  Latin, 
including  oral  and  written  translation  based  upon  pas- 
sages from  Caesar  or  Cicero. 

Class  I:  4  hours  per  week.  i.  Prepared  and  unpre- 
pared translation,  oral  and  written,  from  Vergil  and 
Cicero.  2.  (a)  Writing  from  dictation  and  commit- 
ting to  memory  passages  from  Cicero;  (b)  reading  met- 
rically and  committing  to  memory  passages  from  Vergil. 
3.  English  into  Latin,  including  oral  and  written  ex- 
ercises based  on  passages  from  Nepos,  Caesar,  or  Cicero. 

B.  Of  boarding  or  private  schools,  some  have  Latin 
four  years,  some  five.  Phillips-Exeter  has  four,  ar- 
ranged as  follows  (candidates  for  entrance  must  be  at 
least  fourteen  years  old)  : 

(a)     Junior  Class:  8  hours  per  week.    Beginners'  Book. 

Fabulae     Faciles.       Nepos  —  about     fifteen     Lives. 

Caesar,  Gallic  War  II.     Grammar,  composition,  and 

sight  translation. 
Lower  Middle  Class :   5  hours.     Caesar,   Gallic  War  I, 

and  either  III  and  IV  or  their  equivalent.     Ovid  — 

about   1000  verses.     Sallust  —  Catiline.     Grammar, 

composition,  and  sight  translation. 
Upper  Middle  Class:  5  hours.     Selections  from  Caesar's 

Civil     War.       Cicero  —  Manilian     Law.       Vergil, 

Aeneid,  I,  II,  III,  IV.     Grammar,  composition,  and 

translation  at  sight. 

21 


Senior  Class :  5  hours.    Aeneid  V  and  VI,  and  selections 

from  VII  through  XII,  and  the  Bucolics.     Cicero 

—  the  Catilines,  Archias,  Milo,  Marcellus,  Ligarius, 

Philippic   XIV,   and    Selected   Letters.      Grammar, 

composition,  and  translation  at  sight. 

(b)  The  Latin  Course  at  the  Hill  School  is  one  of 
five  years;  it  begins  in  the  second  form: 

Second  Form :  Grammar  and  Lessons.     Viri  Romae. 

Third  Form:  Caesar,  Gallic  War,  I,  II,  III,  IV.  Com- 
position and  sight  reading. 

Fourth  Form :  Cicero  —  Catilines,  Archias,  Manilian 
Law.  Ovid.  Composition  and  sight  reading. 

Fifth  Form:  Nepos.  Ovid.  Caesar.  Cicero.  Reviews. 
Composition.  Sight  Reading. 

Sixth  Form :  Varies  by  years :  either  Cicero  — r-  Catilines, 
Archias,  Ligarius,  Manilian  Law,  Marcellus ;  or 
Vergil.  Composition  and  translation  at  sight. 

(c)  Course   of   study   of   Jesuit   Academies   of    the 
Middle  West: 

First  Year:  8  periods  a  week  in  two  terms. 
Precepts : 

First  Term :  Etymology  as  far  as  deponent  verbs. 
Second  Term :  Brief  review  of  etymology ;  deponent 

and  irregular  verbs.     Principal  rules  of  syntax. 
Text-book:  Bennett's  Foundations  of  Latin." 
Authors :  First  Term :  Translation  of  exercises  in  text- 
book, pp.  1-83. 

Second  Term:  Exercises,  Fables,  and  Roman  His- 
tory in  text-book,  pp.  83-168. 

Composition:  First  and  Second  Terms:  Exercises 
given  in  text-book,  and  constant  oral  and  written 
themes  on  the  matter  seen. 

Memory:  Second  Term:  One  hundred  lines  at  least. 
(Half  of  the  Latin  exercises  and  half  of  the  "  Se- 

22 


lections  for  Reading  "  should  be  seen  thoroughly, 
the  other  half  should  be  read  and  translated  at 
sight.) 

Second  Year :  6  periods  per  week  in  two  terms. 
Precepts : 

First  Term :  Thorough   review  of  etymology,  with 
principal  notes  and  exceptions.     Syntax  —  agree- 
ment,   questions    and    answers,    accusative    and 
dative. 
Second    Term :    The   genitive,    ablative,    adjectives, 

Roman  dates. 
Text-book :  Bennett's  Grammar.     First  Term :  Par.  i 

to  193.     Second  Term:  Par.  194-241. 
Authors :    Fables    of    Phsedrus,    Aulus    Gellius,    Viri 

Romse  —  for  the  first  term. 

Second  Term:  Nepos,  Caesar  (de  Bell.  Gall.)     Sight 
reading  both  terms.     (Miller  and  Beeson's  Second 
Year  Latin  Book  to  be  used  in  second  and  third 
years.) 
Composition : 

First  Term :  Bennett's  Preparatory  Latin  Writer  — 

lessons  I  to  X. 

Second  Term:  id.  XI  to  XXII. 
Both  Terms :   One  written  composition  a  week  in 

imitation  of  the  author.    Daily  oral  themes. 
Memory:  About  200  lines. 

Third  Year :  5  periods  a  week  in  two  terms. 

First  Term :  Etymology  reviewed  with  all  exceptions 
and  irregularities.  Syntax  —  brief  review  of  mat- 
ter seen  preceding  year.  Pronouns,  tenses,  sub- 
junctive, purpose  clauses,  causal  and  temporal 
clauses. 

Second  Term :  Substantive  clauses,  conditional  sen- 
tences, indirect  discourse,  participles,  gerund  and 
supine. 

23 


Text-book : 

First  Term:  Bennett:  Par.  242-293. 
Second  Term :  Bennett :  Par.  293-347. 
Authors : 

First  Term:  Caesar,  de  Bello  Gallico. 

Second  Term :  Ovid's  Metamorphoses  and  Cicero's 

Letters.    Sight  reading,  both  terms. 
Composition : 

First  Term:   Bennett's   Preparatory   Latin   Writer, 

lessons  XXIII  to  XXXII. 
Second  Term:  id.,  lessons  XXXIII  to  XLIV. 
Both  Terms :   One  written  composition  a  week  in 
imitation  of  the  author.    Daily  drill  in  oral  themes 
and  Latin  conversation. 
Memory:  About  200  lines. 

Fourth  Year:  5  periods  a  week  in  two  terms. 
Precepts : 

First  Term :  Thorough  review  of  the  whole  gram- 
mar,  including  all  exceptions   and   irregularities. 
Word-order,  sentence  structure,  style,  Julian  Cal- 
endar.    Figures  of  Syntax  and  Rhetoric. 
Second  Term :  Prosody. 
Text-book:  Bennett's  Grammar. 
Authors : 

First  Term:  Cicero's  Letters,  de  Senectute,  and  de 
Amicitia.     Vergil's  Eclogues  and  Georgics.     Sal- 
lust's  Catiline. 
Second  Term:  Vergil,  Aeneid  I.     Cicero  in  Catilin- 

am  I,  III,  and  IV.     Quintus  Curtius. 
Sight  reading  both  terms. 
Composition : 

First  Term:  Bennett's  Supplementary  Exercises  in 
Continued  Discourse.  Weekly  composition  in 
imitation  of  author. 

Second  Term:  Two  compositions  a  week  in  imita- 
tion of  author.  Exercises  in  verse-making. 

24 


Both  Terms :  Daily  drill  in  oral  themes  and  Latin 

conversation. 
Memory:  About  200  lines. 

[NOTE.  —  The  best  monograph  on  Jesuit  Education, 
from  the  Jesuit  point  of  view,  is  that  by  Robert  Schwick- 
erath,  S.J.,  of  Woodstock  College,  Md.  Published  by 
Herder,  St.  Louis  —  1903.] 

V.     PROGRAMS  OF  THE  HUMANIST  SCHOOLMASTERS 

A.  School  of  Vittorino  da  Feltre  (1378-1446.)  The 
best  monograph  on  Vittorino  is  that  of  Woodward 
—  Cambridge  University  Press.  1897. 

Grammar  was  treated  under  four  heads,  which  had 
to  be  mastered  thoroughly  before  reading  of  authors  or 
continuous  composition  was  entered  upon.  The  master 
first  provided  sufficient  vocabulary  by  dictation,  and  with 
the  words  themselves  their  inflexions.  Then  easy  pas- 
sages from  the  poets  were  delivered,  explained,  trans- 
lated, and  treated  as  exercises  in  accidence.  Parallel 
with  this  ran  a  similar  course  in  historical  narrative  or 
moral  anecdote,  in  which  more  stress  was  laid  upon  the 
matter  in  view  of  subjects  for  elementary  composition 
or  disputation.  Accent,  quantity,  and  enunciation  were 
taken  in  hand  as  an  integral  part  of  every  lesson.  These 
quattuor  officia  grammaticorum  were,  in  the  eyes  o'f 
Vittorino,  the  foundation  of  good  teaching. 

Inasmuch  as  practically  nothing  better  in  the  way  of 
grammars  existed  than  elementary  treatises  like  the 
Erotemata  of  Chrysoloras,  it  was  necessary  for  the  pupil 
to  accumulate  both  vocabulary  and  syntax  by  gradual  in- 
duction from  the  usage  of  authors.  Observation  and 
practice  were  a  sine  qua  non.  There  was  much  reading 
aloud. 

Cicero  and  Vergil  were  the  corner-stones  of  the  read- 
ing. Passages  from  both  were  committed  to  memory  as 
the  basis  of  style  and  aids  to  vocabulary  and  prosody. 

25 


With  these  Lttcan  and  Ovid  were  associated.  Yittorino 
dealt  first  of  all  with  the  exact  meaning  of  each  word 
and  its  construction  in  the  sentence;  this  was  followed 
by  an  exposition  of  style.  Explanations  of  allusions 
and  characters  succeeded ;  and  all  these  points  were  illus- 
trated from  other  passages  of  the  same  or  of  different 
authors.  The  matter  thus  given  out  was  taken  down  by 
each  pupil,  who  thus  formed  for  himself  his  own  written 
vocabulary  and  collected  examples  of  syntax  and 
prosody. 

Among  other  authors  studied  in  entirety  or  in  selec- 
tions, were  Horace,  Juvenal,  Seneca  (Tragedies),  Caesar, 
Livy,  Q.  Curtius  Rufus,  Valerius  Maximus,  Pliny's 
Natural  History,  Phsedrus,  Statius,  Claudian,  Justin, 
Florus,  Quintilian,  Boethius,  Jerome,  and  Lactantius  — 
the  last  four  were  mainly  for  advanced  students. 

Latin  was  the  regular  medium  for  conversation;  there 
was  a  vast  amount  of  memory  work  —  such  as  commit- 
ting whole  orations  of  Cicero ;  and  much  original  com- 
position and  verse  writing  in  Latin. 

B.     The  program  of  John  Sturm  (1507-1589). 

Joannis  Sturmii  de  institutione  scholastica  opuscula 
selecta.  I.  de  literarum  ludis  recte  aperiendis  liber 
Joannis  Sturmii  ad  Prudentissimos  Viros,  ornatissimos 
homines,  etc.,  1538.  II.  Joannis  Sturmii  Classicarum 
Epistularum  libri  III  sive  Scholar  Argentinenses  restitu- 
tae — 1565.  This  is  the  plan  I  have  abridged  and  trans- 
lated opposite. 

The  works  of  Sturm  will  be  found  in  "  Die  evangelis- 
chen   Schulordnungen   des   sechszehnten   Jahrhunclerts," 
PP-  653-745,  herausgegeben  von  Reinbold  Vormbaum  — 
Giitersloh,  C.  Bertelsmann,  1860. 

Boys  entered  at  six  or  seven;  and  the  course  lasted 
ten  years,  after  which  they  were  supposed  to  go  to  the 
university. 

I  Year:  Memorize  declensions  and  conjugations. 

26 


II  Year:    (a)    More  declensions  and  conjugations,  tak- 
ing up  irregular  forms;   (&)   begin  definite  construction 
of  vocabulary,   each  pupil  building  his  own   dictionary. 
Review  of  I. 

III  Year :  Review.     Grammar  systematically  arranged. 
Select  Letters  of  Cicero,  with  reference  to  grammatical 
construction  throughout. 

IV  Year:  Review.     Syntax  expounded  by  examples 
from   Cicero.     Daily   reading  of   Cicero.     Exercises   in 
style  —  alteration  and  changing  of  sentences.     Transla- 
tion of  Catechism  into  Latin. 

V  Year :    Review.      Cicero    translated    into    German. 
Memory  work.    Latin  poems  —  for  style.    Letters  of  St. 
Jerome.    Catechism  in  Latin. 

VI  Year:  Review.    Vocabulary  —  Latin  names  of  ob- 
jects of  which  the  German  names  were  previously  un- 
known ;    dictionary   of   Latin   words   and   phrases   com- 
pleted.    Prosody.     Cicero  (Cato,  Lselius).     Vergil  (Ec- 
logues).      Mythology.       Style  —  double    translation    of 
Latin   into  German  and  vice-versa.     Versification:    (a) 
restoring  to  proper  metre  wrords  disarranged;    (b)    in- 
vention in  a  specific  metre. 

VII  Year :  Review.    Practice  in  style  as  above.   Cicero 
—  Verres.      Epistles   and    Satires   of   Horace.      Pauline 
Epistles. 

VII1 1   Same  methods  of  style,  etc.     Rhetoric  added. 
IX  L  Cicero.      Vergil.      Sallust.      Pauline    Epistles. 
XJ  All  the  plays  of  Plautus     and  Terence  —  many 
of  these  were  acted  by  the  pupils. 

C.     Method  of  Roger  Ascham   (1515-1568). 

The  Scholemaster  —  by  Roger  Ascham.  London, 
posthumously  published,  1570.  Edited  by  Edward 
Arber,  and  reprinted  as  in  the  original.  London,  1870. 

After  the  child  had  learned  the  eight  parts  of  speech, 
as  well  as  the  joining  of  noun  and  adjective,  noun  and 

27 


verb,  and  noun  and  antecedent,  he  was  to  be  given 
Sturm's  Selections  of  Cicero's  Epistles.  This  to  be  care- 
fully construed,  parsed,  etc.,  by  the  teacher  first  and 
then  by  the  pupil.  The  text  was  translated  into  English ; 
the  translation  was  laid  aside  for  a  while,  and  then 
translated  back  into  Latin;  and  the  pupil's  version  com- 
pared with  the  original.  Thus  the  student  studied  gram- 
mar in  direct  connection  with  the  original  text,  instead 
of  as  an  isolated  subject.  After  this,  he  was  given 
longer  lessons,  and  taught  what  was  proprium  and  trans- 
latum,  what  synonymum,  what  diversum,  etc. ;  and  a 
course  of  reading  in  Cicero,  Caesar,  Livy,  and  Terence  or 
Plautus  followed. 

Six  points  were  to  be  observed :  I.  Translatio ;  II. 
Paraphrasis;  III.  Metaphrasis ;  IV.  Epitome;  V.  Im- 
itatio ;  VI.  Declamatio.  Special  stress  was  laid  on 
translatio  and  imitatio;  and  double  translation  (Latin 
into  English  and  vice-versa)  insisted  upon.  Paraphrasis 
was  to  "  take  some  eloquent  Oration  or  some  notable 
commonplace  in  Latin  and  express  it  with  other  wordes." 
Metaphrasis  consisted  in  taking  "  some  notable  place 
out  of  a  good  Poete  and  turning  the  same  sens  into 
meter,  or  into  other  wordes  in  Prose." 


CHAPTER   III 

We  are  now  in  a  position  to  lay  down  some  general 
principles  on  the  question  of  Latin  which  shall  guide 
us  in  presenting  the  subject  to  its  best  advantage. 

I  do  not  believe  that  a  child  should  undertake  the 
study  of  Latin  before  the  twelfth  year  at  least.  The 
judgment  before  that  age  is  not  yet  mature  enough  to 
grasp  the  complexities  of  a  language  so  highly  inflected 
when  compared  with  the  English.  It  is  true,  that  in 
Vittorino  da  Feltre's  school  children  of  ten  recited  their 

28 


own  Latin  compositions,  and  pupils  of  fourteen  memor- 
ized and  recited  with  taste  whole  orations  of  Cicero. 
But  I  cannot  be  convinced  that  the  introduction  of  Latin 
into  the  grammar  school  grades  is  desirable;  though  it 
has  been  attempted  in  several  quarters.  The  reasons  of 
my  objection  are  several.  Firstly,  immaturity,  as  I  have 
said  above.  Again,  I  believe  that  the  grammar  school 
is  the  place  to  acquire  a  thorough  grounding  in  such 
essentials  as  reading,  writing,  arithmetic,  geography, 
English  grammar,  and  history,  including  civics.  It  is 
the  general  experience  of  those  who  teach  beginners  of 
Latin  in  the  high  school,  that  the  first  two  or  three 
weeks  must  be  spent  in  driving  home  such  facts  as,  for 
example,  that  a  noun  may  not  be  conjugated  nor  a  vert 
declined  with  impunity.  The  next  year,  when  Caesan 
is  taken  up,  time  must  needs  be  wasted  in  proving  to 
pupils  that  Hungary  is  not  in  Asia.  Then  a  Roman 
numeral  occurs,  and  nobody  in  the  class  can  interpret  it. 
When  a  translation  is  asked  for,  the  amount  of  ignorance 
displayed  in  spelling  makes  the  teacher  shiver.  All  this 
is  by  the  way,  to  support  my  contention  that  the  grammar 
school  is  no  place  for  Latin,  but  for  vital  fundamentals. 
It  is  better,  too,  for  a  boy  to  study  elementary  civics  and 
learn  how  his  municipality  is  governed,  than  to  take  his 
dead  language  before  he  knows  some  living  facts ;  one  of 
the  worst  faults  of  education  has  always  been  a  tendency 
to  live  too  much  in  the  past.  In  Vittorino's  school  his- 
tory was  a  subject  for  style;  any  idea  of  strict  investiga- 
tion of  truth  was  quite  beyond  his  horizon,  as  it  was 
also  for  his  model,  Livy ;  but  happily  times  have  changed. 
A  third  objection  to  beginning  Latin  in  the  grammar 
school  is  the  danger  of  forcing  a  pupil  to  plod  at  a 
subject  so  long  that  the  very  monotony  of  it  will  kill 
his  interest.  I  think  that  five  years  is  quite  enough  for 
Latin  before  college;  but  if  it  is  to  be  begun  in  grammar 
grades,  the  unfortunate  boys  and  girls  will  have  six  and 
seven  years  ahead  of  them.  Moreover,  it  has  been  my 

29 


experience  that  the  boys  or  girls  in  the  high  school  have 
the  maturity  to  go  ahead  just  about  twice  as  fast  in  Latin 
as  they  could  advance  when  they  were  in  the  gram- 
mar grades;  so  that  for  them  to  take  up  the  language 
in,  say,  Grade  VIII,  where  they  could  do  only  half  the 
amount  of  work,  is  time  wasted  which  might  better  have 
been  devoted  to  other  things. 

Before  passing  to  a  consideration  of  the  first  year  of 
Latin,  I  shall  make  some  comments  in  the  form  of 
general  principles  to  be  observed  in  the  teaching  of  the 
various  parts  of  our  subject,  such  as  grammar.  I  shall 
touch  them  briefly;  for  I  propose  to  discourse  more 
minutely  upon  them  when  I  take  up  the  course  year 
by  year. 

Of  Correlation 

It  is  in  the  highest  degree  undesirable  that  Latin 
should  be  taught  as  an  isolated  study.  It  should  be  cor- 
related throughout  the  course  with  English.  It  should 
be  correlated  with  French  or  German;  for  these  lan- 
guages often  present  grammatical  peculiarities  similar  to 
those  of  Latin;  and  a  reference  to  such  aids  to  a  better 
understanding  of  them  all.  It  should  be  correlated  with 
History;  in  Roman  History  instruction  in  the  use  of 
primary  sources  may  be  given  by  the  Commentaries  of 
Caesar,  the  Catiline  of  Sallust,  and  the  Orations  and 
Letters  of  Cicero,  for  example;  and  in  Medieval  His- 
tory attention  may  be  called  to  simple  works  like 
Einhard's  "  Life  of  Charles  the  Great  "  in  the  original. 

Of  correlation  with  English  I  shall  have  considerable 
to  say  later;  but  for  the  present  I  subjoin  a  list  of 
various  works  which  illustrate  diverse  aspects  of  Roman 
history.  Some  of  them  may  assuredly  be  with  profit 
made  a  part  of  the  prescribed  "reading  in  English ;  and 
they  furnish  much  admirable  material  for  themes.  At 
any  rate,  the  pupil  should  be  encouraged  to  read  those 

30 


that  his  teacher  may  select  as  most  suited  to  his  age 
or  tastes.    Here  are  some  of  the  books : 
Quo  Vadis  Sienkiewicz 

Last  Days  of  Pompeii  Bulwer-Lytton 

Lays  of  Ancient  Rome  Macaulay 

Ben  Hur  Wallace 

Julius  Caesar  Shakespeare 

The  Young  Carthaginian  Henty 

Coriolanus  Shakespeare 

Sisters  Eber 

The  Emperor  (time  of  Hadrian)  Eber 

Prusias  (story  of  Spartacus)  Eckstein 

Callus  Becker 

Two  Thousand  Years  Ago  A.  J.  Church 

(third  Mithridatic  War) 
Roman  Traitor  (time  of  Catiline) 
Neaera  (Tiberius  at  Capri) 
Quintus  Claudius   (time  of  Domitian) 
Letters 
Meditations 
Enchiridion  . 
Marius  the  Epicurean 
Callista  (persecutions  of  Decius) 
Ward^,  of  Plotinus 
Zenobia 
Aurelian 

Fabiola,  or,  The  Church  of  the  Catacombs 
Hypatia 


Herbert 

Graham 

Eckstein 

Pliny 

M.  Aurelius 
Epictetus 
Pater 
Newman 
Mrs.  John  Hunt 
William  Ware 
William  Ware 
Wiseman 
Kingsley 


The  Count  of  the  Saxon  Shore 

Antonina ;  or,  The  Fall  of  Rome 

Felicitas 

Stories  from  Vergil 

Parallel  Lives 


A.  J.  Church 

Wilkie  Collins 

Dahn 

Church 

Plutarch 


Of  Grammar 

The  first  two  years  of  Latin  should  give  such  a  thor- 
ough  knowledge   in  the   fundamentals  of  grammar  by 


3T 


constant  drill  and  repeated  review,  that  the  emphasis 
during  the  other  years  may  be  put  more  on  the  litera- 
ture as  literature.  I  see  no  valid  reason  why,  after  two 
years  of  grammar,  a  pupil  should  not  have  absorbed 
enough  not  to  be  balked  by  any  syntactical  difficulty  that 
may  be  encountered  in  the  reading  of  the  next  three 
years. 

I  believe  most  firmly  in  the  method  used  by  the 
Humanists,  that  each  pupil  write  his  own  grammar  up 
to  a  certain  point.  During  the  first  two  years  this  ought 
to  be  the  case;  and  no  formal  printed  grammar  should 
be  given  until  the  third  year.  For  the  presentation  of 
all  possible  cases  and  the-  mention  of  every  exception, 
such  as  necessarily  occurs  in  a  good  grammar,  is  con- 
fusing to  the  student  who  has  but  lately  begun  the 
language.  Inasmuch,  also,  as  our  text-books  insist  on 
explaining  every  point  by  copious  references  not  to  one, 
but  to  half  a  dozen  grammars,  it  will  be  well  to  adopt 
a  plan  more  simple  and  much  more  profitable.  The  best 
way  to  learn  syntax  is  by  seeing  it  in  .the  authors  read. 
Therefore,  after  the  pupil  has  mastered  forms  from  a 
good  beginner's  book  —  but  not  until  then  —  he  should 
at  once  be  put  to  reading;  and  each  construction  should 
be  explained  and  taken  down,  with  simple  concrete  ex- 
amples, in  a  notebook.  Let  us  suppose  that  the  first 
construction  met  is  a  purpose  clause.  The  teacher  ex- 
plains by  examples  in  English  what  that  means;  the 
pupils  are  then  asked  to  give  examples  of  their  own ; 
the  teacher  now  points  out  or  asks  the  students  to  find 
other  examples  in  the  text;  and  finally  the  child  is  led 
to  deduce  the  fact  that  in  Latin  purpose  is  expressed 
by  the  subjunctive  with  "  ut."  Next,  the  law  of  se- 
quence of  tenses  may  be  similarly  developed.  The  teacher 
may  then  state  the  rules  as  simply  as  possible  and  the 
pupil  should  record  them,  with  concrete  examples,  in 
his  notebook.  Other  methods  of  expressing  purpose  may 
in  like  manner  be  explained  and  noted.  If  the  pupils 

32 


are  studying  German  or  French  also,  it  will  help  to  an 
understanding  of  all  the  languages  concerned  if  the  use 
of  "  dass  "  in  German  or  of  "  afin  que  "  in  French  to 
express  purpose  be  similarly  brought  to  the  attention. 
A  teacher  may  even  go  further  and  explain  zvhy  a  pur- 
pose clause  takes  the  subjunctive;  it  expresses  desire, 
one  of  the  two  primary  functions  of  that  mood.  Teachers 
who  don't  realize  that  grammar  is  something  more  than 
rules  will  doubtless  assert  that  fifteen-year-old  children 
cannot  reason  out  that  much;  but  if  they  will  try  the 
experiment,  they  may  learn  considerable  themselves.  If 
this  deductive  method  is  employed  to  a  reasonable  ex- 
tent, the  student  will  begin  to  use  his  logical  faculty; 
and  that  is  one  reason  why  Latin  is  taught. 

It  is  obviously  important  to  guard  against  an  abuse 
of  either  inductive  or  deductive  methods.  It  is  well  to 
start  at  once  by  giving  a  rule  in  a  case  where  time 
would  be  lost  in  an  attempt  to  get  by  deduction  a  gram- 
matical principle  quite  foreign  to  the  student's  experi- 
ence or  grasp.  So  with  the  inductive  process  also ;  a 
student  can  easily  be  induced  to  build  up  the  perfect, 
pluperfect,  and  future  perfect  of  a  verb  after  he  has  the 
perfect  stem  and  the  personal  endings;  but  it  is  waste 
of  time  to  try  that  process  in  the  matter  of  case-endings, 
for  example,  of  a  declension ;  here  it  is  better  to  present 
the  whole  paradigm  at  once  in  its  entirety  and  have  it 
memorized.  I  do  not  believe  that,  as  a  rule,  either  in- 
ductive or  deductive  method  should  be  attempted  until 
the  declensions  and  conjugations  have  been  mastered ; 
it  is  only  after  you  have  been  provided  with  hammer  and 
nails  and  timber  that  you  can  build  a  house. 

Very  important  in  grammar  it  obviously  is,  to  let  the 
unessentials  pass  and  not  give  exceptions  or  rare  forms 
which  the  student  will  never  see  in  his  reading  during 
his  high-school  course.  In  word  formation  the  impor- 
tance of  knowing  the  force  of  sco  attached  to  a  verb 
or  of  the  suffix  ia  to  a  noun  is  evident;  but  it  is  deaden- 

33 


ing  and  unprofitable  to  give  elaborate  rules  about  the 
precise  force  of  suffixes  alis,  aris,  elis,  His,  and  ulis  at- 
tached to  adjectives.  These  the  pupil  gets  readily  by 
observation. 

Of  Prose  Composition 

Prose  composition  is  usually  the  bugbear  of  the  teach- 
ing of  Latin.  Many  a  pupil  who  takes  a  real  pleasure 
in  the  reading  of  Latin  has  his  interest  deadened  by  it. 
The  usual  arguments  adduced  for  it  are  that  it  is  superb 
training  for  the  logical  faculty,  that  it  leads  to  a  better 
appreciation  of  an  author,  that  it  makes  syntax  clearer, 
and  that  it  helps  the  understanding  of  English  because 
the  student  must  weigh  carefully  the  exact  meaning  of 
the  English  before  rendering  it  into  an  idiom  so  different 
as  the  Latin.  Of  these  reasons,  I  can  accept  only  the 
last  two  as  valid.  For  a  close  and  logically  conducted 
study  of  grammar  will  develop  the  reasoning  faculty 
much  more  than  composition ;  and  careful  translation  of 
Latin  into  English,  with  particular  attention  to  the  force 
of  each  word  and  phrase  and  characteristics  of  style,  is 
by  all  odds  the  best  way  to  appreciation. 

The  prime  aim  of  prose  composition,  then,  is  to  drive 
home  grammatical  principles  and,  indirectly,  to  help  the 
pupil's  English.  Here  it  is  well  to  reason  out  the  limits 
to  which  this  work  should  be  confined.  In  the  first 
place,  any  insistance  on  "  style  "  is  quite  out  of  place 
in  a  secondary  school.  We  have  heard  of  an  English- 
man who  would  never  read  the  Vulgate  because  it  might 
spoil  his  style.  But  very  few  men  indeed  who  are  fa- 
miliar with  the  classic  writers  would  be  so  self-com- 
placent. One  who  reads  modern  Latin  as  written  by 
the  greatest  scholars  knows  very  well  that  he  is  not 
reading  Caesar  or  Cicero.  It  is  not  fair,  therefore,  to 
distract  a  high-school  pupil  by  such  .considerations.  As 
a  single  illustration,  let  us  take  the  matter  of  word 
order.  Teachers  are  very  prone  to  make  a  fuss  about 

34 


putting  verbs  at  the  end  of  the  sentence,  and  forming 
correct  periods  of  all  composition,  and  the  like  .  Yet 
there  are  many  sentences  in  Cicero's  Letters  which  run 
along  as  in  English ;  which  would  prove  that  the  natural 
order  of  speech  was  very  much  the  same  in  the  Roman's 
conversation  as  in  the  Englishman's ;  for  which  the 
Vulgate,  which  is  certainly  very  excellent  Latin,  fur- 
nishes additional  arguments.  And  is  the  periodic  sen- 
tence the  only  possible  arrangement  in  Latin?  Are  not 
Sallust  and  Tacitus  as  great  stylists  as  Caesar? 

Again,  the  best  composition  is  only  a  piracy  of  words, 
phrases,  and  constructions  which  actually  occur  in  ex- 
tant authors.  When  a'  stude"ht  uses  any  other,  the 
teacher  doesn't  know  whether  the  Romans  may  have 
used  it  or  not.  Suppose  you  give  the  pupil  this  sen- 
tence :  "  Caesar  made  me  write  the  letter."  The  boy 
translates  literally :  "  Caesar  fecit  me  scribere  hanc 
epistolam."  "  Wrong,"  says  the  teacher ;  "  you  should 
say,  '  Caesar  coegit'  "  etc.  But  observe : 
qui  nati  coram  me  cernere  letum  fecisti 

-  Vergil,  A  en.,  II,  539. 
mel  ter  infervere  facito. 

-Col.  12,  38,  5. 
Nulla  res  magis  talis  oratores  videri  facit 

—  Cicero,  Brutus,  38,  142. 

Or  suppose  you  have  the  sentence,  "  Horace  is  worth 
reading."  I  believe  that  the  majority  of  teachers 
would  here  insist  on  a  qui  clause,  because  the  composition 
book  says  so  and  they  don't  remember  ever  seeing  an 
infinitive  used  in  this  construction.  But  see  Quintilian, 
X,  i,  96:  "At  Lyricorum  idem  Horatius  fere  solus  legi 
dignus."  And  isn't  Quintilian  "classical"? 

What  teacher  would  not  insist  on  omitting  the  prepo- 
sitions before  names  of  cities?  Nevertheless,  the  Em- 
peror Augustus  did  not  omit  them :  praecipuamque  curam 
duxit,  sensum  animi  quam  apertissime  exprimere.  Quod 
quo  facilius  efficeret  aut  necubi  lectorem  vel  auditorem 

35 


obturbaret  ac  moraretur,  neque  praepositiones  urbibus 
addere  neque  coniunctiones  saepius  iterare  dubitavit,  quae 
detractae  afferunt  aliquid  obscuritatis,  etsi  gratiam  augent 
—  Suetonius,  divus  Augustus,  §86.  Teachers  insist  that 
"  dum  "  meaning  "  while  "  takes  the  present  indicative ; 
but  Caesar  and  Nepos  make  it  take  the  perfect,  also. 
Nepos  uses  "  quamvis  "  with  the  indicative ;'  so  does 
Cicero,  once.  But  the  teacher  insists  that  "  quamvis  " 
takes  the  subjunctive  always.  Nepos  often,  and  Cicero 
and  Caesar  occasionaly,  break  the  "  law  "  of  the  sequence 
of  tenses  and  use  the  perfect  instead  of  the  imperfect 
with  "  ut "  in  result  clauses.  What  is  truth,  indeed  ? 

See  also  Cicero  ad  Atticum:  7,  3,  10.  And  note  the 
anecdote  on  "  odivit "  in  Phil.  13,  19,  42. 

As  Latin  is,  furthermore,  no  longer  the  language  of 
diplomacy,  of  science,  or  of  history,  more  than  a  limited 
amount  of  time  devoted  to  speaking  or  writing  it  is  very 
idle;  about  as  ridiculous  as" the  English  habit  of  writing 
verse. 

I  repeat,  then,  that  only  so  much  time  should  be  de- 
voted to  prose  composition  as  shall  drive  home  gram-1 
matical  principles.  The  vital  mistake  in  this  matter  is 
to  expect  too  much.  Sentences  should  be  simple  and 
based  on  the  text  read  in  the  daily  lesson.  It  is  also 
better,  I  believe,  to  spend  five  minutes  a  day  on  com- 
position, than  to  set  one  whole  period  apart  for  this  on 
some  particular  day. 

It  is  my  conviction  that  the  teacher  will  derive  more 
profit  from  making  sentences  of  his  own  for  this  work, 
than  to  use  a  formal  composition  book.  Composition 
books  are  entirely  too  voluminous  and  complex.  Take 
this  sentence  from  lesson  23,  page  87,  of  Harper  and 
Burgess's  "  Elements  of  Latin  "A  "  Caesar,  after  carry- 
ing on  war  with  the  Venetians,  remains  in  Gaul,  so  that 
he  may  hinder  the  barbarians,  who  are  wont  to  fight 
with  their  neighbors."  That  is  not  only  too  much  to 
A  American  Book  Company.  —  1900. 

36 


expect  from  pupils  who  have  had  but  twenty-three  les- 
sons in  Latin,  but  it  is  too  elaborate  for  students  in  the 
first  half  of  the  second  year.  Or  consider  this  for 
second-year  students  :A  "  While  the  Helvetii  were  getting 
ready  those  things  which  they  were  going  to  take  with 
them  on  the  journey,  Orgetorix  persuaded  them  to  es- 
tablish peace  with  their  neighbors,  saying  that  he  would 
go  to  the  neighboring  states  to  accomplish  this  purpose." 
Compare  with  this  the  simple  sentences  given  on  the 
Harvard  paper  in  Elementary  Latin  for  pupils  who  have 
had  three  years  of  the  language. 

Of  Memory  Work 

From  the  first  a  reasonable  amount  of  work  to  be 
committed  to  memory  and  recited  should  be  required, 
both  to  cultivate  the  memory  —  mental  laziness  is  a 
pretty  prevalent  fault  with  our  pupils  —  and  to  enrich 
the  mind  with  the  best  thoughts  of  the  masters.  A  stu- 
dent will  not,  in  later  years,  regret  having  memorized 
the  eulogy  of  -literature  in  the  "  Archias  "  or  Vergil's 
"  Non  ignara  mali  miseris  succurrere  disco";  and  the 
like.  N 

On  Reading  Aloud 

The  advantages  of  reading  aloud,  if  one  endeavors,  at 
the  same  time,  to  throw  the  emphasis  in  the  right  places, 
must  be  obvious ;  not  only  is  it  a  powerful  aid  in  grasp- 
ing the  sense,  but  it  conduces  also  to  familiarity  with 
the  language  and  to  an  easy  and  correct  pronunciation. 
One  of  the  most  difficult  things  to  persuade  a  student 
to  do,  is  to  get  him  to  read  the  lesson  over  as  a  whole 
in  order  to  grasp  the  meaning  in  its  entirety,  before 
proceeding  to  pick  out  the  individual  words  and  trans- 
lating piecemeal.  The  teacher  should  also  constantly 

A  Ch.    Ill,    section   2,   of   Moulton's   Preparatory   Latin   Com- 
position   (Ginn,    1901). 

37 


read  to  the  pupils;  whereby  they  readily  acquire  a  cor- 
rect enunciation  by  observation.  The  majestic  rhythm 
and  cadence  which  is  one  of  the  charms  of  Latin  can 
be  appreciated  only  by  intelligent  reading;  and  in  Cicero 
correct  reading,  especially  in  quantity,  is,  as  we  shall 
see,  of  vast  importance  in  understanding  the  power  of 
the  orator  over  his  audience.  People  to-day  seem  to 
have  forgotten  what  Quintilian  and  later  the  Humanists 
knew  very  well,  that  reading  aloud  is  one  of  the  most 
healthful  of  exercises,  from  the  standpoint  both  of  the 
digestion  and  of  the  lungs. 

It  is  very  profitable,  if  the  teacher  will  from  time  to 
time  read  to  the  classes  some  selection  in  Latin  adapted 
to  their  progress  and  then  ask  the  pupils  the  purport  of 
what  has  been  read.  This  'not  only  brings  about  a 
readier  comprehension,  but  also  inspires  the  enthusiasm 
which  always  follows  the  feeling  that  one  is  acquiring 
mastery  of  one's  subject. 

Of  the  Pronunciation  of  Latin 

Perhaps  it  is  not  necessary  to  say  much  on  the  pro- 
nunciation of  Latin,  since  the  Roman  method  is  in  prac- 
tically universal  vogue.  Professor  Bennett,  in  the 
"  Teaching  of  Latin  and  Greek,"  pp.  66-80,  argues  that 
this  method  should  be  abandoned,  and  the  English 
method  substituted.  He  admits  that  we  do  know  exactly 
how  Caesar  and  Cicero  pronounced  their  language;  but 
holds  that  inasmuch  as  no  student  can  ever  learn  the 

quantities  of  vowels  in  all  words  like  sexaginta,  senex, 

V     "~ 

video,  etc.,  it  is  better  to  abandon  the  attempt  altogether ; 
and  he  believes  that  the  English  method  is  also  easier 
for  beginners.  I  cannot  agree  with  him.  The  vowels 
in  our  text-books  are  marked  for  the  pupil;  and  they 
readily  become  familiar  with  them.  That  beginners  find 
it  difficult  is  not  my  experience;  it  stands  to  reason,  of 

38 


course,  that  beginners  should  not  be  harassed  by  too 
great  an  insistence  on  mastering  each  long  and  short 
quantity.  It  seems  to  me  that  even  approximate  correct- 
ness is  better  than  the  English  method,  which  emasculates 
the  Latin;  and  how  any  one  can  appreciate  Cicero  01^ 
Vergil  by  this  system  is  beyond  my  comprehension.  In 
Vergil  pupils  learn  to  read  the  hexameter  both  readily 
and  with  a  correct  enunciation  of  long  and  short  vowels 
without  much  trouble,  because  the  quantity  is  easily  seen 
in  this  metre.  Moreover,  the  English  method  is  not 
so  easy  as  it  appears,  because  the  English  letters  have 
severally  so  many  varied  sounds.A  However,  I  do  not 
deem  the  subject  so  important  that  it  needs  extended 
discussion;  I  shall  content  myself  with  giving  a  short 
bibliography  of  primary  and  secondary  sources;  and  the 
teacher  interested  can  form  his  opinion  at  his  leisure. 

Primary  Sources : 

Keil:  Grammatici  Latini.  Leipsig.  1855-1880.  The 
standard  collection  of  grammarians,  who,  by  the  way, 
are  much  more  numerous  than  people  suppose. 

A  Observe  some  of  the  elaborate  rules  which  the  student  of 
the  English  method  must  learn: 

I.  Of   dissyllables   the  penultimate   vowel,   if  it  be   followed 
by  a   single  consonant  or  by  T  and   R  or  L,  is  sounded   long, 
as  amo,  scelus,  Titus,  onus,  lyra,  triplex.     Traditional  exceptions 
are    ibi,    tibi,    ?ibi.    ciuibus,    Paris,    and    ero,    eram,    etc.,    from 
sum,    to    which    Greek    influence    has    now    added    ego.      In    all 
others  the  penultimate  vowel  is  pronounced  short,  as  in  cinctus, 
nondum,   sanctus. 

II.  In  words  of  more  than  two  syllables,  if  the  penultimate 
be  long,  the  quantities  are   observed  before  a  single  consonant, 
as    monebam,    amain.      If    the    penultimate    be    short,    the    ante- 
penult is  also  sounded  short,  as  monitum,  veritus;  but  in  earlier 
syllables  the  quantities  are  observed,  as  mirabilia.     If,  however, 
a  penultimate  vowel  other  than  U  be  immediately  followed  by 
another   vowel,   the   antepenultimate   vowel   i?   sounded    long,   as 
habeo,    melior,   but    momii;    except    where   the    two   vowels   are 
both    I    or    its    equivalent,    as    utilia,   Nicia^^L'ideo.     The    same 
principles    apply    to    earlier    vowels;    thus,  ^ne    first    syllable   of 
amaz'erunt  is  sounded  short,  and  the  first  syllable  of  Dicaeopolis 
long. 

39 


Corpus  Inscriptionum  Latinarum.     Begun  in   1863. 

Statements  of  writers  like  Varro,  Quintilian,  Cicero, 
and  Aulus  Gellius  (see,  for  example,  Gellius  II,  3,  II,  17, 
IV,  17,  VI  (VII)  7,  VII  (VI)  15). 

Greek  transliterations  of  Latin  words.A 
The  scientific  study  of  sound  changes.3 
The  development  of  the  Romance  Languages.0 

Secondary  Sources: 

Charles  E.  Bennett:  Appendix  to  Latin  Grammar, 
4-68.     Boston.     1895.    Allyn  &  Bacon. 

W.  M.  Lindsay:  The  Latin  Language.     Ch.  II.     O 
ford.     Clarendon  Press.     1894. 

W.  M.  Lindsay:  Historical  Latin  Grammar,  pp.  8-21. 
Oxford.  Clarendon  Press.  1895. 

Emil  Seelmann:  Die  Aussprache  cles  Latein.  Heil- 
bronn.  1885. 

Robinson  Ellis :  The  Quantitative  Pronunciation  of 
Latin.  London.  1874. 


H.  Roby:  Latin  Grammar.  Vol.  I,  4th  edition,  p 
xxx-xc.  London.  Macmillan.  1881. 

H.  A.  J.  Munro :  Pronunciation  of  Latin.    London. 

Frances  E.  Lord :  The  Roman  Pronunciation  of  Lati 
Boston.  Ginn  &  Co.  1894. 


Of  Revieiv 


Constant  review  is  the  only  sure  way  to  settle  gram- 
mar  and   vocabulary   firmly   in   the   mind.      It    is   very 

Av.    the    "Corpus    inscriptionum    Grsecarum";    and    Roman 
names  in  Plutarch,  for  example. 

Bv.  Max  Miil^s  and  Whitney's  standard  works. 

c  v.  Professor  Grandgent's  "    Introduction  to  Vulgar  Latin.'' 
(D.  C.  Heath.) 


40 


foolish  to  imagine  that  Latin  is  easy.    Each  daily  lesson 
should  be  either  preceded  or  followed  by  a  review  of 
the  preceding  day's  lesson;  and  at  the  end  of  terms  the 
work  of  that  term  should,  be  reviewed  and  summed  up 
as  concisely  and  coherently  as  possible.     It  is  in  review 
that  the  pupil  sees  the  subject  as  a  whole  and  notes  the  1 
connection  of  parts  which  have  so  far  seemed  more  or^ 
less  isolated  fragments. 

Of  Translation 

"  The  fine  art  of  translation  "  is  one  of  the  very  best 
means  of  acquiring  command  of  one's  mother  tongue 
and  appreciation  of  the  authors  who  are  to  be  translated. 
A  translation  that  is  adequate  -will  render  as  minutely  as 
possible  the  exact  force  of  each  word,  the  style,  and  the 
atmosphere  of  an  author.  Great  translations  are  lament- 
ably few;  translations,  I  mean,  equal  to  Bayard  Taylor's 
"  Faust,"  or  the  Comedies  of  Aristophanes,  by  Rogers. 
Good  English  in  translation  is  a  thing  to  be  absolutely 
insisted  upon ;  and  there  is  no  reason  why  pupils  should 
not,  with  fair  success,  imitate  the  conciseness  of  Caesar 
and  the  periodic  harmony  of  Cicero.  In  Vergil,  above 
all,  attention  to  the  concrete  meanings  of  words,  their 
literal  signification,  is  a  sine  qua  non  for  real  apprecia- 
tion^ When  Virgil  sings  "  spumas  salis  acre  ruebant," 
and  the  teacher  permits  a  student  to  render  it  "  they 
were  sailing  along,"  instead  of  "  they  were  plowing  the 
foam  of  the  brine  with  the  bronze  "  —  that  teacher  has 
sinned  against  Vergil.  Written  translations  should  be 

A"  Language  is  called  the  Garment  of  Thought;  however, 
it  should  rather  be,  Language  is  the  Flesh-Garment,  the  Body, 
of  Thought.  .  .  .  Metaphors  are  her  stuff :,  examine  Lan- 
guage; what,  if  you  except  some  few  primitive  elements  (of 
natural  sound),  what  is  it  all  but  Metaphors,  recognized  as 
such,  or  no  longer  recognized.  ...  is  not  your  every 
Attention  a  Siretching-io? "  —  Carlyle,  Sartor  Resartus,  I,  n. 

41 


assigned  frequently  and  as  part  of  the  required  work  in 
English;  for  the  Latin  schedule  cannot  afford  too  much 
time  for  such  matters. 

Pupils  should  be  taught  to  take  the  Latin  idea  in  the 
Latin  order,  with  special  attention  to  the  emphatic  posi- 
tion of  words. 

Slipshod  renderings  of  Latin  words  are  a  common 
feature  of  the  classical  work  in  our  schools.  Does 
"  fides  "  mean  "  faith,"  or  "  religio  "  "  religion,"  or  "  an  " 
at  the  beginning  of  a  sentence  mean  "  or  "  ?  Is  "  quos 
honoris  causa  nomino  "  translated  adequately  by  "  whom 
I  name  for  the  sake  of  honor "  ?  And  how  many 
teachers  pay  attention  to  a  good  rendering  of  an 
"ethical"  dative?  Very  few;  they  permit  a  pupil  to 
fancy  that  "  Tongilium  mihi  eduxit "  is  well  translated 
by  "  He  led  out  Tongilius,"  instead  of  by  Professor 
Lane's  "  He  took  out  Tongilius,  bless  my  soul !  "  I 
most  earnestly  recommend  the  splendid  grammar  of  Pro- 
fessor Laae  to  teachers,  if  only  for  the  numberless 
happy  translations  to  be  found  in  it.A 

On  the  Use  of  Translations 

That  the  use  of  "  trots "  cripples  the  power  of  a 
pupil  during  the  first  two  or  three  years  of  Latin  I 
fancy  no  one  will  deny.  When  it  comes  to  Vergil,  how- 
ever, I  believe  that  translations  of  acknowledged  literary 
excellence  —  such  as  those  of  Dryden,  Rhoades,  Wil- 
liams, and  Conington  —  help  in  appreciation  and  do  not 
lead  to  abuse.  The  teacher  should  keep  on  his  desk, 
for  pupils  to  look  into  at  opportune  moments,  good  trans- 
lations of  the  works  of  Caesar,  Cicero,  Vergil,  not  usually 
read  in  the ^  schools;  and  in  teaching  Roman  History 
translations  of  Suetonius,  Tacitus,  and  the  like  should 
by  all  means  be  accessible  for  reference. 

A  Revised   Edition,    1898.     Harper. 
42 


Of  the  Acquisition  of  Vocabulary;  and  of  Sight  Reading. 

Grammar  is  the  tool  which  unlocks  the  treasure-house 
of  a  language;  but  the  words  are  the  treasure-rooms 
themselves.  The  acquisition  of  vocabulary  is  a  vital 
point  in  learning  any  tongue.  How  can  it  be  acquired 
most  readily,  most  effectively?.  In  two  ways:  by  the 
intensive  study  of  a  certain  passage  or  passages  of  a 
prescribed  lesson  each  day ;  and  by  reading  at  sight.  And 
here  the  old  Humanist  schoolmasters  can  still  instruct 
us.  John  Sturm  insisted  that  each  boy  put  down  on  a 
card  or  in  a  notebook  each  new  word  met  with  in  the 
reading  and  that  this  be  committed  to  memory.  Experi- 
ence has  convinced  me  that  no  other  method  can  com- 
pare with  this  in  fruitfulness  for  pupils  in  secondary 
schools.  I  have  repeatedly  had  pupils  come  to  me  for 
coaching  in  College  Entrance  Examinations  in  Latin  and 
German  and  French  who  had  read  a  very  flattering 
amount  of  literature  in  those  languages ;  but  they  could 
not  translate  the  simplest  sentences  at  sight  with  ac- 
curacy. They  had  simply  never  learned  to  photograph 
individual  words  and  their  meanings  in  their  minds. 
There  should  be  considerable  reading  at  sight  through- 
out the  course ;  and  here  is  the  chance  really  to  acquire 
a  vocabulary.  Let  the  student  write  each  new  word  on 
a  card  with  its  meanings  and  let  him  be  required  to 
memorize  it;  by  this  means  the  memory  is  strengthened 
and  a  stronger  grasp  of  the  language  follows. 

I  have  heard  of  an  objection  to  this,  to  the  effect  that 
a  boy  cannot  write  and  memorize  all  the  possible  mean- 
ings of  words  like  ratio?  res,  fero,  studium,  consilium, 
and  the  like,  which  must  be->  differently  translated  in  a 
multitude  of  ways  in  different  passages.  The  objection 
is  not  valid ;  for  in  the  case  of  all  such  words  two,  three, 
and,  at  the  most,  four  meanings  can  be  given  which  will 
fit  every  context. 

43 


Ability  to  distinguish  between  words  which  look  alike 
is  of  fundamental  importance;  many  a  sentence  is  in- 
accurately translated  from  failure  to  distinguish  "  opus  " 
meaning  "  work  "  and  the  indeclinable  "  opus  "  meaning 
"need";  and  both  these  are  constantly  confused  with 
*ops  (opis)  and  opera  (opene).  Again,  "  tantum  "  as 
an  adverb  in  the  sense  of  "  merely,"  "  only  "  is  very 
common ;  and  the  only  way  to  learn  such  necessary  mat- 
ters is  to  write  them  down  and  memorize  them.  Little 
booklets  like  Ritchie's  "  Discernenda,"  a  list  of  Latin 
words  liable  to  be  confused,  are  a  convenient  thing  for 
pupils  to  use.A 

In  the  case  of  many  words  it  is  not  beyond  a  pupil's 
comprehension,  if  he  is  given  the  fundamental  root  of  a 
series  of  words  from  which,  by  the  addition  of  proper 
prefixes  and  suffixes,  he  can  easily  derive  secondary 
meanings.  Thus :  i/ag  has  the  idea  "  to  go  at  a  thing," 
"to  drive,"  "to  set  in  motion."  Hence:  ago,  agito, 
actor,  actus,  agilis,  agitator,  agitatio,  agilitas,  cogo  [co- 
ago"|,  adigo  fad-ago],  etc. 

Two  excellent  "  Latin  Word  Lists "  have  appeared 
within  the  last  three  years:  one  by  Professor  Lodge 
[Columbia  University  Press!,  the  other  by  Mr.  George 
H.  Browne  [Ginn  &  Co.].  These  lists  contain  the  words 
met  with  in  works  of  the  authors  usually  read  in  second- 
ary schools ;  and  these  words  are,  furthermore,  arranged 
in  the  numerical  proportion  of  their  occurrence.  The 
translations  of  each  word  are  excellent  and  adequate  to 
fit  the  sense  of  any  context  in  which  they  occur.  Obvi- 
ously, if  a  pupil  were  assigned  only  two  or  three  of  these 
words  per  day  —  a  small  task  —  throughout  the  high- 
school  course,  he  would  have  a  larger  vocabulary  than 
the  feeble  imitation  which  is  usually  met  among  seniors 
in  secondary  schools.  It  is,  however,  always  to  be  re- 
membered, that  the  visualization  of  a  word  is  best  ac- 

A  Discernenda  —  Ritchie  —  Longmans,     Green     &     Co.  —  1898 
44 


quired  by  first  seeing  it  in  a  given  context  and  then 
noting  it  with  its  various  meanings  in  other  contexts. 
This  is  the  best  method  to  photograph  it  in  the  memory. 
But  the  Latin  Word  List  may  well  serve  as  an  important 
auxiliary. 

Of  Authors:  and  What  Works  of  the  Authors  should 
be  read  in  Secondary  Schools 

A  careful  survey  of  the  courses  of  study  in  Latin  in 
preparatory  and  high-schools  shows  that,  in  general,  the 
reading  is  confined  to  three  authors :  Caesar,  Cicero,  and 
Vergil.  To  these  are  added,  occasionally,  Ovid,  Nepos, 
and  Sallust.  Of  Caesar,  four  to  eight  books  of  the 
"  Gallic  War  "  and,  now  and  then,  the  "  Civil  War  "  are 
presented ;  of  Cicero,  six  to  fourteen  orations ;  of  Vergil, 
six  to  twelve  books  of  the  "^Eneid."  Compare  with 
this  the  courses  of  study  in  modern  languages ;  and  note 
the  huge  contrast.  A  student  who  pursues  German  for 
four  years  becomes  acquainted  with  representative  works 
of  Goethe,  Schiller,  Lessing,  and  Heine ;  with  lesser  poets, 
such  as  Uhland,  Ritckert,  and  the  like ;  with  prose 
writers  such  as  Freytag,  Hauff,  Grimm,  and  Hoffmann. 
The  question  arises  why  Latin  literature  with  its  Livy, 
Pliny,  Catullus,  Juvenal,  and  a  host  of  writers  who 
have  profoundly  impressed  their  marks  on  succeeding 
ages,  has  grown  to  be  confined,  in  secondary  schools  — • 
with  the  exception  of  the  Jesuit  —  to  the  "  Gallic  War," 
the  "  Aeneid,"  and  the  "  Orations  "  of  Cicero.  That  is 
to  say,  Latin  has  suffered  as  if  English  literature  were 
to  be  confined  to  the  campaigns  of  Wellington,  the 
Paradise  Lost,"  and  Burke's  speeches.A 

A  What  period  of  Roman  history  is  most  closely  related  to 
us?  The  first  three  centuries  after  Christ,  when  law  was 
perfected,  when  Christianity  worked  its  way  to  supremacy, 
when  the  barbarians  who  were  to  form  the  modern  nations 
began  to  win  the  ascendency.  Strange  that  such  a  period  should 
have  not  one  of  its  numerous  authors  represented  in  a  course  of 
Latin. 

45 


The  causes  of  the  confined  study  of  Latin  are  varied 
and  without  any  substantial  basis  of  reason.  For  in  the 
first  place,  Latin  is  looked  upon  primarily  as  a  drill  in 
grammar.  Again,  the  teachers  themselves  are  not  the 
masters  of  their  subject  as  they  ought  to  be—  "the 
master 'many  times  being  as  ignorant  as  the  childe,  what 
to  saie  properlie  and  fitlie  to  the  matter,"  as  Ascham 
remarks.  Furthermore,  it  is  believed  that  reading  as 
much  as  possible  of  a  single  author,  and  that,  too,  of  a 
single  work  of  that  author,  is  the  only  way  of  gaining 
a  proper  mastery  of  Latin  literature.  And,  lastly,  the 
cogent  reason  that  superintendents  demand  certain  fixed 
programs,  the  colleges  require  them,  and  the  publishing 
houses  will  issue  no  other  texts. 

Latin  is  more  than  a  drill  in  grammar.  It  can  and 
should  be  made  a  vehicle  for  the  interpretation  of  the 
genius  of  that  people  which  has  stamped  its  system  of 
law  and  government  upon  the  western  nations.  Its  liter- 
ature, considered  as  pure  literature,  is  majestic,  ethical, 
classic;  Plautus  an<3  Terence  inspired  English  comedy; 
Seneca  and  Horace  have  influenced  tragedy  by  example 
and  precept;  Vergil  has  guided  not  Dante  alone;  Quin- 
tilian  is  mighty  as  rhetorician  and  educator.  You  can- 
not understand  -the  development  of  the  Christian  Church 
without  the  study  of  the  genius  of  Rome.  Why  should 
Latin  be  but  a  drill  in  grammar? 

Caesar's  "  Commentaries "  will  always  remain  the 
model  of  the  military  memoir  for  their  precision,  their 
sustained  elegance.  The  study  of  the  tribes  who  formed 
the  nucleus  of  modern  nations  never  fails  to  interest  the 
student;  the  Roman  methods  of  conquering,  their  pro- 
cesses of  warfare,  always  attract  attention  and  eager 
inquiry.  But  they  are  as  poor  that  surfeit  with  too 
much,  as  they  who  starve  on  nothing;  and  to  force  three, 
four,  and  even  five  books  of  Caesar  on  a  boy  or  girl 
is  a  grievous  sin.  Would  any  German  teacher  spend  a 
year  on  the  campaigns  of  Frederick  the  Great?  The 

-      46 


UNIVERSITY 


? 

SlTYl 


moment  that  the  reading  of  an  author  is  pushed  to 
satiety  and  becomes  a  painful  repetition  of  the  same 
dreary  details,  as  of  battles,  sieges,  and  battles  again,  at 
that  moment  it  ceases  to  inspire  and  produces  a  reaction 
against  the  literature  which  the  author  represents. 

Nothing  is  more  unfortunate  than  the  treatment  of 
Cicero  in  our  secondary  schools.  For  the  "  Orations  " 
do  not  represent  Cicero's  real  greatness.  He  is  the 
humanist,  who  interpreted  Greek  philosophy  for  the 
western  world;  he  is  a  human  man,  whose  letters  throw 
a  fascinating  light  on  contemparaneous  political  and 
social  life.  In  his  "  Orations  "  he  has  set  a  false  stand- 
ird  for  men.A 

Why  confine  Vergil  to  the  "  Aeneid  "  ?  Is  not  the 
music  of  the  "Eclogues"  worth  attention?  Why  not 
:lrop  the  last  six  books  of  the  "  Aeneid,"  the  artificial, 
:hough  wonderfully  artistic,  adaptations  of  Greek  origi- 
nals, and  contemplate  for  a  while  the  Fourth  Eclogue 
and  Vergil's  uniq'ue  position  as  a  magician  during  the 
Middle  Ages?  Does  any  English  teacher  read  the  whole 
:>f  "  Paradise  Lost,"  with  no  consideration  of  "Lycidas"  ?A 

The  result  of  our  present  system  of  presenting  Latin 
s  that  the  Roman  world  is  plunged  into  the  same  mystic 
md  (inhuman  atmosphere  which  surrounded  it  during 
:he  Middle  Ages.  It  will  be* worth  while  for  any  teacher 
;o  question  his  or  her  juniors  and  seniors  some  day  as 
:o  their  ideas  of  Roman  life  and  literature.  Results  are 
ilways  interesting,  though  rarely  soothing.  To  cite  but 
:>ne  example :  the  average  student  believes  quite  naturally 
:hat  the  Roman  conversed  exactly  as  Cicero  and  Vergil 
•vrote,  using  the  same  elaborate  word  order,  the  same 
lowery  language.  Hence  the  Roman  appears  as  a  Being 
earfully  and  wonderfuly  made,  who  spent  most  of  his 
ime  in  devising  knotty  grammar  for  posterity.  And 
et  a  week  devoted  to  reading  from  the  Vulgate  would 

ASee   pages   79-87   and  97-101  for  an  extended  discussion  of 
hese  points. 

47 


quickly  disabuse  the  student;  the  Vulgate  was  written 
for  the  great  masses,  not  for  a  cultivated  nobility  alone: 
and  it  seems  to  me  extraordinary  that  this  chance  ha^ 
been  so  long  overlooked  for  making  boys  and  girls  ac- 
quainted at  once  with  the  Bible  and  the  spoken  language 
of  the  average  Roman. 

I  meet  at  once  with  the  objection,  that  I  am  trying 
to  make  Latin  interesting  at  the  expense  of  hard  work 
Such  has  never  been  my  practice ;  and  the  make-it- 
pleasant-and-easy  method  of  teaching  is  as  distasteful 
to  me  as  to  any  one.  But  I  assert  positively  that,  at 
the  end  of  two  or,  at  most,  three  years  of  Latin,  a 
student  who  has  been  rightly  drilled  should  be  ready  tc 
read  at  a  fair  pace  and  should  have  enough  grammar  tc 
last  for  the  next  four  years  of  study,  if  he  desires  to 
continue  the  language.  It  is  in  the  junior  and  senior 
years  that  I  plead  for  greater  variety,  much  more  than 
during  the  first  two  or  three.  No  one  insists  more 
firmly  on  a  solid  foundation  of  grammar  than  I  do. 

Again :  the  assertion  is  made  that  the  vocabulary,  say, 
of  Pliny'  and  of  Seneca  is  too  difficult  for  a  high-school 
student.  That  assertion  is  nonsense;  for  I  have  had 
juniors  and  seniors  read  selections  from  these  authors 
with  less  trouble  than  from  Cicero. 

The  idea  that  one  must  read  the  whole  "  Aeneid  "  to 
appreciate  Vergil,  or  seven  books  of  the  "  Gallic  War  " 
to  understand  Caesar  is  about 'the  weakest  argument  of 
the  Old  Guard.  ,  Far  from  leading  to  appreciation,  too 
much  of  an  author  becomes  a  deadly  bore.  And  it  is 
unfair  to  the  author.  Cicero  also  wrote  some  charm- 
ing essays,  and  some  still  more  interesting  letters;  to 
prevent  the  student  from  observing  his  author  in  all  his 
different  aspects  is  most  unjust  to  the  writer. 

I  would  make  certain  parts  of  Caesar,  Cicero,  and 
Vergil  the  basis  of  the  curriculum  in  Latin  for  intensive 
study;  but  I  believe  that  one  month  or  two  of  the  year 
should  be  taken  for  other  authors,  adapted  to  the  sev- 


eral  classes,  in  order  to  get  a  wider  knowledge  and  a 
broader  vocabulary.  In  my  own  practice,  I  use  such 
authors  largely  for  sight  reading. 

It  is  to  be  remembered  that  a  small  percentage  of  our 
high-school  pupils  take  Latin  in  college;  very  few  ever 
go  to  college;  and  hence  the  desirability  for  as  broad 
a  range  in  reading  as  is  consistent  with  thoroughness  is 
vastly  increased.  I  do  not  believe  that  every  boy  or 
girl  should  study  Latin;  but  I  hold  firmly  that,  if  it  is 
taught,  our  present  confined  system  is  inadequate.  The 
language  is,  indeed,  on  the  defensive..  Botany,  zoology, 
meteorology,  Esperanto,  and  other  vital  studies,  which 
are  so  marvelously  practical,  tend  to  crowd  it  back.  If 
Nature  has  intended  a  boy  to  be  a  blacksmith,  let  him 
study  blacksmithing ;  but  if  he  has  a  capacity  for  litera- 
ture, let  him  not  be  driven  from  that  literature  which  is 
so  vitally  interwoven  with  our  modern ;  let  him  not  gain 
the  impression  that  Caesar,  Cicero,  and  Vergil  are  all 
there  is. 

I  once  asked  a  teacher  of  the  old  school  why  so  many 
authors  were  studied  in  German  and  French,  and  only 
three  in  Latin.  To  this  he  replied  that  he  would  not 
give  a  snap  of  his  fingers  for  the  results  achieved  in 
modern-language  work;  and  he  cited  in  support  that 
in  eminent  Harvard  professor  of  modern  languages  had 
>aid  the  same.  The  worthy  old  schoolmaster  was  mis- 
aken.  The  Harvard  professor  had  not  attacked  the 
•eading  of  many  authors;  he  had  attacked  the  slipshod 
vay  in  which  these  authors  are  presented. 

Many  teachers  agree  that  more  variety  is  desirable; 
ut  they  point  to  the  fact  that  Yale,  Princeton,  Wil- 
iams,  every  college  except  Harvard,  demand  four  books 
>f  Caesar,  six  orations  of  Cicero,  and  six  books  of  the 
Aeneid";  and  they  ask,  "What  can  we  do?"  Well, 
f  teachers  were  not  so  afraid  of  expressing  their  opin- 
ons,  perhaps  Yale  and  her  little  sisters  would  some  day 
wake  to  the  fact  that  translation  at  sight  is  the  only 

49 


true  test  of  ability  in  Latin,  as  all  acknowledge  it  is  in 
German  and  French.  Any  bright  boy  can  "  trot  "  out 
his  prescribed  Cicero  in  a  month  and  pass  the  examina- 
tion. I  have  seen  it  done  repeatedly.  And  I  should  like 
to  inquire,  by  the  way,  by  what  divine  right  colleges 
are  allowed  to  dictate  studies  in  secondary  schools,  see- 
ing that  a  very  small  per  cent  of  high-school  students 
ever  go  to  college? 

In  accordance  with  the  arguments  that  I  have  pre- 
sented above,  it  is  my  purpose,  when  I  deal  with  the 
program  year  by  year,  to  indicate  what  various  authors 
and  what  parts  of  those  authors  I  have  found  suitable 
to  present  to  pupils  in  secondary  schools,  in  order  to 
give  them  a  wider  range  and  broader  insight.  As  I  have 
said,  one  or  two  months  a  year  devoted  to  these  writers 
—  who  may  serve  largely  for  sight  reading  —  will  suffice 
for  our  purposes.  I  shall,  I  trust,  prove  that  from 
Phsedrus,  Aulus  Gellius,  Pliny  the  Younger,  Q.  Curtius 
Rufus,  Valerius  Maximus,  the  Vulgate,  Velleius  Pater- 
culus,  Livy.  Seneca,  Juvenal,  Ovid,  Sallust,  and  the  like, 
the  teacher  has  a  splendid  opportunity  to  derive  work 
adapted  to  the  several  classes  at  the  teacher's  discretion. 
In  connection  with  these  authors  I  shall  here  notice 
briefly  two  possible  objections :  I.  That  many  are  not 
"  classical  " ;  II.  That  suitable  texts  cannot  be  procured. 

The  "  classical  "  argument  amounts  in  most  cases  to 
absolute  feeble-mindedness.  The  Old  Guard  tell  us  that 
Caesar,  Cicero,  Vergil,  and  the  other  Augustan  writers 
are  "  classical,"  but  the  others  are  beyond  the  pale.  Pre- 
cisely as  if,  in  English,  we  should  all  attempt  to  write  in 
the  language  of  Shakespeare  and  Milton,  and  consider 
Gladstone  and  Lincoln  "  silver  "  English.  Isn't  Quin- 
tilian  classical  ?  Isn't  Claudian  classical  ?  Isn't  the  Vul- 
gate classical  ?  If  you  except  formations  like  "  baptize," 
the  Latin  of  the  Vulgate  is  the  Latin  of  Caesar ;  only 
the  word-order  is  much  the  same  as  in  English;  it  is, 
therefore,  not  to  be  read,  I  suppose.  Some  of  those  who 

50 


insist  so  on  the  "  classical  "  even  have  the  impertinence 
to.  forbid  their  pupils  to  read  authors  like  Velleius  Pater- 
culus   on   the  ground   that   their  Latin  style  would  be 
corrupted.     "  Style  "  in  writing  Latin  is  something  that    ] 
can  be  predicated  very  rarely  of  great  scholars  —  like   / 
Erasmus;  and  to  speak  of  it  in  connection  with  high-  / 
school  pupils  amounts  to  a  self-complacency  verging  on  / 
the  idiotic. 

As  to  texts :  the  Teubuer  texts  are  very  cheap,  neatly 
bound,  well  printed,  and  excellently  edited.  They  have 
no  vocabulary  attached ;  but,  as  I  have  remarked  before, 
these  authors  last  mentioned  should  form  the  basis  of 
the  sight  reading  to  a  large  extent;  and  the  pupil  should 
note  each  new  word.  There  is  nothing  so  profitable  as 
to  place  the  whole  text  of  an  author  in  the  hands  of  a 
pupil ;  one  likewise  without  the  pretty  pictures,  legions 
of  grammatical  references,  and  exercises  in  composition 
based  on  the  text,  which  all  go  to  make  the  usual  text- 
30oks  a  bugbear.  From  a  Teubner  text,  also,  the  teacher 
las  the  whole  field  of  an  author  to  select  from.  Nor  is 
t  a  bad  idea  to  encourage  the  pupil  to  start  a  little 
classical  library  of  his  own,  if  he  can  afford  it;  ten 
dollars  will  do  wonders. 

Texts  with  notes  and  vocabularies  are  also  accessible, 
although  teachers  do  not  know  it.  I  shall  mention  two 
of  these  —  excellent  in  every  way : 

I.  Selections  from  Ovid,  Curtius,  and  Cicero;  with 
lotes,  vocabulary,  and  brief  biographies  of  these  writers. 
Edited  by  F.   Gardner,  A.   M.  Gay,  and  A.  H.  Buck. 
Lee   and    Shepard,    Boston.      Contains    selections    from 
Ovid's   Metamorphoses,   Quintus   Curtius   Rufus's   His- 
ory  of   Alexander  the   Great,   and  Cicero's   de   Senec- 
ute  and  de  Amicitia. 

II.  A  Latin  Reader.     By  William  and  Joseph  Allen. 
Boston,  Ginn  &  Co.,  1869.    Notes  and  vocabulary.    Con- 

51 


tains  selections  from  Phaedrus,  Caesar,  Quintus  Curtiu^ 
Rufus,  Nepos,  Sallust,  Ovid,  Vergil,  Plautus,  Terenre. 
Cicero,  Pliny,  and  others. 

To   these   should   be  added   the   following  admirable 
selections  for  sight  reading: 

III.  Latin  at  Sight.     By  Edwin   Tost.     Ginn  &  Co. 
Short     selections     from     Caesar,     Cicero,     A.     Gelliu-. 
Phaedrus,   Nepos,   Eutropius,   Q.    Curtius   Rufus,    Sue- 
tonius, Tibullus,  Justin,  Pliny,  Livy. 

IV.  Passages  for  Practice  in  Translation  at  Sight. 
Selected   and   arranged   by  James   S.   Reid.     London: 
Daldy,  Isbister,  and  Co.  (56  Ludgate  Hill). 

V.  Roman  Life  in  Latin  Prose  and  Verse.    Selected 
and  edited  by  Harry  T.  Peck  and  Robert  Arruwsmith. 
American    Book    Company.      Selections    from    popular 
songs,  tomb  inscriptions,  Ennius,  Plautus,  Cato  the  i 
sor,   Catullus,   Livy,   Ovid,   Caesar,   Juvenal,   Pliny   the 
Younger  and  Pliny  the  Elder,  Tacitus,  Christian  Hymns, 
etc.,  etc.,  with  brief  biographies  and  excellent  pictures. 
This  is  the  best  reader  that  has  appeared. 

Miscellaneous 

Schoolrooms  where  Latin  is  taught  should,  wherever 
possible,  contain  pictures  dealing  with  Roman  life  or 
art,  busts  of  men  like  Caesar,  Cicero,  and  Vergil,  and 
suitable  maps;  for  all  these  lend  vividness  and  bring  the 
past  nearer.  On  the  desk,  or  in  the  bookcase,  there 
should  be  such  works  on  topography,  archeology,  private 
life  of  the  Romans,  history,  facsimiles  of  manuscripts 
and  the  like,  as  are  adapted  to  the  student's  progn 
and  he  should  be  encouraged  to  glance  through  them 
whenever  time  permits.  I  append  a  limited  list  of  wrk- 
which  are  suitable  to  inspire  the  attention  of  pupils  in 
secondary  schools: 

Govv:  Companion  to  School  Classics.     Lnndnn.     Mac- 
millan. 

52 


Becker:  Callus,  or  Roman  Scenes  in  the  Time  of  Au- 
gustus    Longmans,  Green  &  Co. 
Comparetti :  Vergil  in  the  Middle  Ages.     Macmillan. 
il.   \\'.  J«»hn>tMii:   Latin    Manuscripts.     Chicago.     Scott, 

esman  &  Co. 

:  I '-Tt  raits  of  Caesar.    Longmans,  Green  &  Co. 
\V.  Smith:  I>utionary  of  Greek  and  Roman  Antiquities. 
id. :  l)irti'>nary  of  Greek  and  Roman  Biography  and 
Mythology.     Boston.     Little,   Brown  &  Co. 
Mackail:    Latin    Literature.     New   York.     Chas.   Scrib- 

ner's  Sons. 

Laiuiani:    Anrient   Rome   in   the   Light  of   Recent  Ex- 
cavations    id.:   Ruins  and  Excavations  of  Ancient 
Rome.     Boston.     Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co. 
Man:    I'ompeii;   its   Life   and     \rt.      New    York.     Mac- 
millan. 

P.ilder  aus  dem  tfruvhischen  und  romischen 
Ahertluiiii.  ir.r  Sdiulrr  zusammengcstellt.  Munich. 
K  Oldenbourg. 

Kiepert:  Classical  Atlas.     Boston.     Benjamin   H.  San- 
born  &  Co. 

;   Atlas,     »  .inn. 

ley:    Gassic    Myths    in    Ln#li>h    Literature.      Ginn 
&  Co. 

Gesta  Romanorum :  Translated  by  Charles  Swan.    Lon- 
don.   George  L.cll  &  Sons. 

Alien:  Remnants  of  Early   Latin,     (linn  &  Co. 
Lind-ay:  Latin  Inscriptions.     Allyn  and  Bacon. 

t<>n  and  Dodge:  The  Private  Life  of  the  Romans. 
Boston.     Leach,  Shewell  &  Sanborn. 
Peck  and  Arrowsmith :  Roman  Life  in  Latin  Prose  and 

rse.     American  T.ook  Co.     1894. 

i  'hurch  :  Roman  Life  in  the  Days  of  Cicero.    Macmillan. 
k    (Harry    T.  •  :   Trimalchio's   Dinner.     New   York. 
Dodd,  Mead  &  Co. 
IMiny  the   Klder :   Natural   Ui>t«»ry.     Bohn. 

53 


A  standard  History  of  Rome,  as,  for  example,  Gibbon's, 

Mommsen's,  or  Merivale's.     Also  Ferrero. 
Milne :  Surgical  Instruments  in  Greek  and  Roman  Times. 

Oxford,    Clarendon    Press    [54    fine    photographic 

plates] . 
Frontinus:  On  the  Water  Supply  of  Rome   (de  aquas- 

ductibus).      Text,    facsimile   of    MSS.,   translation. 

numerous     illustrations  —  by     Clemens     Herschel. 

Boston.    Dana  Estes  &  Co. 
Heroes  of  History:   By  Ida   P.  Whitcomb.     Maynard, 

Merrill  &  Co.,  New  York. 


CHAPTER    IV 
THE  FIRST  YEAR  OF  LATIN 

The  most  important  point  to  remember  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  first  year  of  Latin  is  that  Latin  is  not  easy 
and  that  constant  drill  and  review  are  indispensable. 

In  the  text-book  the  mere  mechanics  of  arrangement 
are  of  great  importance.  A  complex  or  confused  ar- 
rangement discourages  the  pupil;  clearness  and  sim- 
plicity of  presentation  are  vital.  The  book  should  not 
be  too  voluminous. 

There  are  four  possible  methods  of  approaching  our 
subject;  I  shall  illustrate  them  by  reviewing  four  repre- 
sentative text-books  which  apply  them. 

I.  The  First  Latin  Book.  Collar  and  Daniell.  Ginn, 
1901.  This  book,  after  the  usual  brief  introduction  to 
the  alphabet  and  to  pronunciation,  gives  paradigms  of 
declension  and  conjugation  at  the  beginning  of  each 
lesson ;  later  on,  also,  a  matter  of  syntax,  say,  the  ablative 
of  means ;  and  to  each  lesson  are  appended  sentences  for 
translation  from  Latin  into  English  and  from  English 

54 


into  Latin.  In  the  case  of  verbs,  whole  conjugations  are 
not  presented  at  once;  but  individual  tenses  are  given 
in  separate  lessons,  until  the  conjugation  is  complete. 

II.  Foundations    of    Latin.      Charles    E.    Bennett. 
Boston.    Allyn  and  Bacon.    Revised  edition,  1903.    Pro- 
fessor Bennett's  manual  proceeds  on  a  different  basis. 
The  declensions  and  conjugations  are  given  as  a  whole 
in  successive  lessons.     The  sentences  set  for  translation 
from  English  into  Latin  are  much  simpler  than  in  the 
book  of  Messrs.  Collar  and  Daniell.     Up  to  chapter  35 
no  such  sentences  appear  at  all  in  the  regular  lessons, 
being  placed  by  themselves   in   the  back  of  the  book. 
Exercises   for  rendering  of  Latin  into   English  appear 
with  each  lesson. 

III.  Beginning  Latin.    John  E.  Barss.    D.  C.  Heath. 
Boston.       1907.      This    text-book    uses    the    inductive 
method.    Paradigms  of  declensions  and  conjugations  are 
not  presented  at  once,  but  the  root  or  stem  of  a  noun, 
for  example,  is  shown,  and  the  pupil  is  asked  to  build 
up  its  declension  by  the  suffix  of  appropriate  endings. 

IV.  Bellum   Helveticum.      For   Beginners   in   Latin. 
C.    M.    Lowe    and    Nathaniel    Butler.      Chicago,    1900. 
Scott,  Foresman  &  Co.     In  this  manual  the  deductive 
method  prevails.    The  pupil  is  put  at  once  into  the  read- 
ing of  Caesar ;  and  each  grammatical  or  syntactical  point, 
and  forms,  are  explained  as  they  occur. 

It  is  rash  to  assert  that  any  one  method  is  best.  Each 
teacher  has  his  own ;  and  if  results  are  right,  the  means 
are  good.  Personally  I  think  that  Professor  Bennett's 
is  by  far  the  best  for  pupils  who  begin  Latin  in  the  high 
school.  His  book  is  very  simple,  compact,  clear;  and 
the  sentences  are,  to  my  mind,  better  than  those  of  any 
other  beginner's  book  in  their  reasonableness  and  under- 
standing of  what  may  be  expected  of  immature  children. 
His  method,  moreover,  of  presenting  whole  conjugations 
at  once,  instead  of  piecemeal,  as  Messrs.  Collar  and 
Daniell  do,  avoids  confusion  by  concentration  on  the 

55 


forms  in  their  entirety.  The  simplicity  of  the  sentences 
to  be  rendered  into  English  commends  itself  to  those 
who  have  learned  by  experience  that  the  sentences  in 
most  of  the  first  Latin  books  are  entirely  too  difficult 
for  first-year  students. 

After  declensions  and  conjugations  have  been  mas- 
tered, together  with  easy  syntax  like  the  ablative  of 
cause;  and  after  considerable  practice  in  the  translation 
of  simple  Latin  into  English;  then,  and  then  only,  is  it 
proper  to  begin  prose  composition  of  English  into  Latin. 
\  Prose  composition  is  the  most  difficult  thing  for  the 
\beginner  to  do;  it  is  also,  when  wrongly  used,  the  great- 
est invention  known  to  make  Latin  odious,  and  for  this 
Reason  is  often  referred  to  as  superb  mental  training; 
just  as  physicians  formerly  thought  a  drug  efficacious  in 
proportion  to  its  nauseousness.  It  demands  common- 
sense  on  the  part  of  the  teacher  to  prevent  it  from  be- 
coming a  bugbear.  Sentences  for  first-year  pupils  should 
be  simple.  I  find  the  following  in  one  book,  given  in 
lesson  23 :  "  Caesar,  after  carrying  on  war  with  the 
Venetians,  remains  in  Gaul,  so  that  he  may  hinder  the 
barbarians,  who  are  wont  to  fight  with  their  neighbors." 
I  consider  this  too  difficult  for  second-year  students,  not 
to  speak  of  unfortunates  who  have  had  only  twenty- 
three  lessons  in  Latin.  I  append  an  example  or  two 
of  sentences  which  I  believe  illustrate  what  may  reason- 
ably be  expected  of  a  pupil  at  the  end  of  the  first  year. 

1.  Caesar  came  in  order  to  conquer  the  Helvetii. 

2.  We  stayed  at  Rome  for  ten  days. 

3.  The    soldiers    who    fought    in    that    battle    were 
praised  by  Caesar. 

4.  Vergil  was  born  at  Mantua,  but  Cicero  in  Arpi- 
num.     Cicero  was  thirty-six  years  older  than  Vergil. 

And  the  like. 

Grammar  studied  alone,  without  vital  connection  with 
a  language,  is  not  of  much  value.  Pupils  should,  there- 
fore, begin  reading  simple  anecdotes  as  soon  as  possible. 

56 


After   the   Roman   way   of   saying   things   has   become 
familiar,  the  pupil  should  begin  to  do  what  seems   to 
me  of  the  highest  practical  value,  namely,  make  his  own 
dictionary  of  words,  phrases,  and  rules  in  his  notebook 
as  he  meets  them  in  his  reading,  especially  reading  at 
sight.      It   is    strange   that   this   method,    found    by    the 
Humanist    schoolmasters    to    yield    such    vast    pracucal 
benefits,  is  not  more  used  to-day.     After  all,  vocabulary 
is  perhaps  the  most  important  matter.     Grammar  is,  in- 
deed, the  foundation ;  but  words  are  the  living  material. 
An  architect  cannot  build  a  mansion  with  his  plans  al«ne ; 
be  needs  stones  and  timber. 

The   following  books  are  suitable  for  first-year  stu- 
dents' reading: 

I.  The  Gradatim.     Revised  by  Collar.     Ginn  &  Co. 

II.  Ritchie's  Fabulae  Faciles.    Edited  with  vocabulary 
by  J.  C.  Kirklancl.     Longmans,  Green  £  Co. 

III.  Scalar    Primae.      J.    G.    Spencer.      Geo.    Bell    & 
Sons,  London.     With  vocabulary. 

IV.  Viri  Romae.    Edited  by  D'Ooge.    Ginn  &  Co. 
.V.     Phaedrus,  Justin,  and  Nepos.     Edited  with  notes 

and  vocabulary,  and  brief  biographical  notices,  by  F. 
Gardner,  A.  M.  Gay,  and  A.  H.  Buck.  Lee  &  Shepard, 
Boston. 

I  would  have  the  students  begin  real  Latin,  written 
by  real  Romans,  as  soon  as  possible.  The  Latin  of 
modern  works  like  the  "  Fabulae  Faciles  "  is,  indeed,  ex- 
cellent;  but  they  are  not  and  cannot  be  what  original 
works  are.  The  Fables  of  Phaedrus  are  practically  un- 
used ;  yet  consider  their  interest  historically  and  ethically 
alone.  As  most  teachers  have  not  read  them  and  prob- 
ably imagine  them  too  difficult  for  beginners,  I  shall 
quote  the  first: 

LUPUS  ET  AGNUS 

Ad  rivum  eundem  lupus  et  agnus  venerant, 
Siti  compulsi ;  superior  stabat  lupus, 

57 


Longeque  inferior  agnus.     Tune  fauce  improba 

Latro  incitatus  iurgii  causam  intulit. 

"  Cur,"  inquit,  "  turbulentam  fecisti  mihi 

Aquam  bibenti  ?  "     Laniger  contra  timens : 

"  Qui  possum,  quaeso,  f  acere,  quod  quereris,  lupe  ? 

A  te  decurrit  ad  meos  haustus  liquor." 

Repulsus  ille  veritatis  viribus, 

"  Ante  hos  sex  menses  male,"  ait,   "  dixisti  mihi." 

Respondit  agnus :  "  Equidem  natus  non  eram." 

"  Pater  hercule  tuus,"  inquit,  "  male  dixit  mihi." 

Atque  ita  correptum  lacerat  inusta  nece. 

Hsec  propter  illos  scripta  est  homines  fabula, 

Qui  fictis  catisis  innocentes  opprimunt. 

Surely  no  one  will  assert  that  pupils  who  have  studied 
Latin  for  six  months  will  be  nonplussed  by  any  gram- 
matical construction  here.  Note,  too,  the  excellence  of 
the  vocabulary  —  the  language  is  that  of  Caesar  and 
Cicero.  That  the  fables  are  in  verse  need  cause  no  diffi- 
culty; the  teacher  can  read  it,  and  the  pupils  learn  the 
scansion  more  easily  than  one  would  suppose.  It  is,  of 
course,  much  too  early  to  bother  them  with  any  rules  of 
prosody;  but  the  matter  of  long  and  short  syllables  they 
will  have  learned  in  the  first  lessons.  The  following 
fables  of  Phaedrus  are  by  no  means  beneath  the  ability 
of  first-year  students :  Nos.  I,  VI,  VIII,  XIV,  and  XLII. 

Memory  work  should  be  assigned  to  a  reasonable 
amount,  even  in  the  first  year.  Phaedrus  offers  excellent 
material,  e.g.,  the  four  verses  of  No.  VI,  or  the  first  three 
of  Nos.  VII  and  VIII.  Or  the  teacher  may  write  on  the 
board,  for  the  pupils  to  copy  and  memorize,  very  com- 
monly used  proverbs,  as: 

Amicus   certus  in   re  incerta  cernitur, 
or, 

Vulgus  amicitias  utilitate  probat. 

58 


There  should  be  much  reading  aloud;  and  above  all 
it  should  be  drilled  into  the  students  from  the  beginning 
that  they  should  read  the  Latin  over  first  and  try  to 
get  the  meaning  as  a  whole  before  the  individual  words 
are  picked  out  for  translation. 

Written  daily  tests  of,  say,  five  minutes  duration,  are 
most  profitable.  Many  a  pupil  recites  glibly  and  with 
seeming  correctness  what  he  cannot  transcribe  accurately 
on  paper.  The  test  may  consist  of  a  question  on  forms 
one  day ;  on  anothetya  sentence  to  translate ;  on  a  third, 
a  matter  of  syntax;  and  the  like.  Dictation  exercises 
are  also  useful  to  acquire  accuracy  and  familiarity  in 
the  language. 

At  the  end  "of  the  first  year  of  Latin  a  student  should 
have  the  following  knowledge:  Declensions  of  nouns, 
pronouns,  and  adjectives;  conjugations  of  regular  verbs 
and  the  common  irregular  verbs,  like  possum,  f  ero,  eo ; 
common  uses  of  ablative,  genitive,  dative,  accusative ;  the 
simple  principles  governing  common  subordinate  clauses, 
such  as  those  of  purpose,  result,  temporal.  A  familiarity 
with  the  Latin  way  of  saying  things,  acquired  by  a  rea- 
sonable amount  of  reading  in  a  suitable  reader;  and 
ability  to  render  into  Latin  very  simple  English  sen- 
tences illustrating  grammatical  principles. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  SECOND  YEAR  OF  LATIN 

Part  I 

The  author  on  whom  we  shall  lay  the  stress  in  the 
second  year  of  Latin  is  Caesar ;  and  the  work,  his  Com- 
mentaries on  the  Gallic  War,  wherein,  as  Roger  Ascham 

59 


remarks,  "  is  scene  the  unspotted  proprietie  of  the  Latin 
tong,  even  when  it  was,  as  the  Grecians  say,  in  a/c^rj, 
that  is,  at  the  hiest  pitch  of  all  perfiteness."  The  value 
of  the  "  Commentaries  "  is  quite  different  from  that  of 
any  modern  general's  memoirs.  No  other  book  con- 
tains such  a  wealth  of  grammatical,  linguistic,  geo- 
graphical, ethnic,  and  historical  material  for  the 
secondary  student.  I  suggest  books  II  and  V  for  in- 
tensive study;  but  any  other  equivalent  for  this  can 
readily  be  arranged  by  the  teacher  at  his  or  her  dis- 
cretion. 

But  it  is  not  wise  to  plunge  the  pupil  at  once  into 
Caesar  in  all  his  complexity.  Therefore,  after  a  review 
of  the  first-year  grammar  to  refresh  the  mind  of  the 
student,  it  is  best  to  start  with  a  book  like  Mr.  Collar's 
"Gate  to  Caesar"  [Ginn  &  Co.],  in  which  the  narrative 
of  Book  II  is  presented,  with  the  most  difficult  parts 
simplified ;  indirect  discourse,  for  example,  is  put  into 
the  direct  form.  We  are  then  ready  to  read  Book  II 
of  the  original  with  profit  and  ease. 

SECOND  YEAR  GRAMMAR 

It  is  in  the  first  two  years  that  the  essentials  of  gram- 
mar must  be  mastered  thoroughly,  as  an  indispensable 
basis  of  further  progress ;  and  the  second  book  of  Caesar 
will  offer  rich  illustrations  of  grammatical  principles. 
The  general  method  of  the  presentation  of  grammar  I 
have  already  pointed  out.  As  the  student  has  either 
already  begun  or  is  beginning  a  modern  tongue  this 
year,  grammatical  similarities  of  the  Latin  and  German 
or  French  should  be  pointed  out ;  purpose  clauses  and 
contrary  to  fact  conditions,  for  example.  Or  take 
"  quod  causal  "  clauses ;  both  German  and  Latin  well 
illustrate  the  fundamental  purpose  of  indicative  and 
subjunctive  here.  Explain  the  shades  of  meaning  be- 
tween "  Caesar  non  venit,  quod  aeger  erat "  and  "  Caesar 

60 


non  venit,  quod  aeger  essct ";  and  in  German,,  "  Casar 
kam  nicht,  well  er  krank  war"  and  "  Casar  kam  nicht. 
well  er  krank  set."  The  '•'  ethical  "  dative  is  more  readily 
grasped  by  citing  examples  like  Shakespeare's  "He 
plucked  me  ope  his  doublet";  and  the  dative  of  "ad- 
vantage "  by  daily  uses,  such  as  "  Read  the  lesson  for 
me."  When  such  means  are  employed,  grammar  seldom 
becomes  a  bore  and  is  both  profitable  and  interesting. 

So,  too,  by  way  of  calling  attention  to  the  fact  that 
Latin  is  vitally  connected  with  modern  tongues,  the 
teacher  should  explain  that  "  Chester  "  in  %  words  like 
''Dorchester"  means  "camp"  from  "  castra,"  just  as 
'  wick  "  in  Southwick  comes  from  "  vicus  "  meaning 
'  village."  And  in  French  the  derivation  of  "  mais  " 
from  "  magis,"  later  "  mayis,"  is  not  without  value  for 
furthering  knowledge  and  interest ;  so  also  "  chose " 
from  "  causa,"  "  chateau  "  from  "  castellum,"  and  the 
ike.  It  stands  to  reason  that  the  student  should  not 
3e  required  to  learn  these  as  part  of  his  lesson;  for  our 
:oncern  is  first  of  all  the  Latin. 

At  the  end  of  the  second  year,  the  student  should 
lave  a  very  fair  grammatical  equipment;  in  fact,  enough 
o  be  adequate,  with  some  additional  note  of  rarer  con- 
structions and  forms,  for  the  next  three  years.  Constant 
Irill  and  review  is  as  essential  as  during  the  first  year. 
[  consider  a  knowledge  of  the  following  reasonable  to 
expect  at  the  end  of  the  second  year : 

Syntax 

1.  Sequence  of  Tenses. 

2.  Prohibitions,  Exhortations,  Wishes. 

3.  Purpose. 

4.  Result. 

5.  Causal  Clauses. 

6.  Conditions. 

7.  Concessive  Clauses. 

61 


8.  Temporal  Clauses. 

9.  Questions,  Direct  and  Indirect. 

10.  Indirect  Discourse.     Complementary  Infinitive. 

11.  Potential  Subjunctive  and  Subjunctive  of  Desire 

as  Basis  of  all  Subjunctives. 

12.  Ablative  Absolute. 

Forms 

13.  Declensions. 

14.  Comparison,  Regular  and  Irregular. 

15.  Conjugations.     Gerund  and  Gerundive.     Supine. 

Functions  of  Cases 

1 6.  Vocative. 

17.  Genitive. 

18.  Dative. 

19.  Accusative. 

20.  Ablative.    Locative. 

Miscellaneous 

21.  Uses  of  Prepositions. 

22.  Accent. 

23.  Word  Formation. 

24.  Numerals.     Dates. 

Nouns  having  Peculiarities 

I.     Dea,  filia,   insidiae    (reliquiae,   tenebrae),  Aeneas, 

Athenae. 

II.     Deus,  pelagus    (vulgus,  virus),   castra    (hiberna), 
locus,  films,  Delphi. 

III.  Paterfamilias,  aedes,  opis,  vis,  lupiter,  bos,  nemo, 

tussis  (sitis),  navis  (puppis,  turris,  sementis), 
ignis  (avis,  civis,  collis,  classis,  finis,  orbis),  pax 
(sal,  sol,  lux),  aer,  caro,  lac,  nox,  moenia. 

IV.  Domus.     Dissyllables  in  cus. 

V.     Cases    lacking   in    plural.      Acies,    effigies,    facies, 
series,  spes. 

62 


Other  Irregular  Words 

Hie,  ille,  is.  Iste,  ipse,  idem.  Quis,  qui,  quisque, 
uidam,  aliquis,  quispiam,  quilibet,  quivis.  Unus,  duo, 
res,  mille.  Plus.  Personal  pronouns.  Adjectives  with 
>eculiar  genitive  and  dative  (solus,  etc.).  Eo,  edo, 
ero,  fio,  volo,  nolo,  malo,  possum,  prosum.  Coepi, 
nemini,  odi.  Semi-deponents.  Acer  (equester). 

Vords  often   confused,  and  words  with  two   or  more 
distinct  meanings 


[uidem 
[uidam 

uperior 

>rofecto 
)rofisciscor 

tacies 
facio 

:onsilium 
concilium 

impero 

impetro 

impertio 

veneo 

venio 

venia 

et 

fero 

fama 


fortis 

fors 

forte 

quamquam 

vis 
vir 

servo 
servio 

remitto 

amitto 

emitto 

promitto 

praemitto 

reus 
res 

dubito 

ratio 

supplicium 

63 


dolor 
dolus 

studium 

iubeo 
iuvo 

aer 
aes 

numen 
nomen 

vallis 
vallum 

patior 
pateo 

fugo 
fugio 

audeo 
audio 


supphcatio 

praedico 

OS 

ora 

vinco 

praedico 

oro 

vincio 

oblitus 

levis 

oblitus 

civis 

levis 

civitas 

morior 

moror 

sol 

malus 

solus 
solum 

mala 
malum 

nego 

solium 

malo 

cogo 

aestas 

incido 

educo 

aetas 

incido 

educo 

aestus 

accido 

tantum 

licet 

accido 

liceor 

accedo 

hostis 

cedo 

hostia 

aura 

caedo 

aurum 

cado 

omen 

auris 

omnis 

„ 

iacio 

omnino 

liber 

iaceo 

liber 

redeo 

nisi 

reddo 

mors 

mos 

duco 

opus 

mora 

opis  (gen.) 

secundum 

opera 

nanciscor 

sectmdus 

nascor 

otium 

una 

odium 

quaero 

queror 

"-     lego 

ordior 

orior 

64 


porta  paro 

portus  pareo  deligo 

P°rto  pario  diligo 

video 

praesto 
contendo  suus 

necessarius 

potior  usus 

possum 
and  the  like. 

Idioms 
nescio  quis. 
aliter  ac  (atque). 
dare  operam. 

cum turn. 

poenas  dare  (sumere). 
alii  alia  in  parte. 
res  secundae  (adversae). 
res  gestae. 

non  modo ne  quidem. 

ex  usu. 

gratias  agere  (habere). 

euro  with  gerundive. 

in  dies. 

and  the  like. 

COMPOSITION  DURING  THE  SECOND  YEAR 

Exercises  in  translation  from  English  to  Latin  should 
be  given,  say,  five  minutes  during  each  period.  They 
should  be  both  oral  and  written ;  and  consist  of  simple 
continuous  narrative,  based  on  the  text.  As  the  fol- 
lowing : 

Dumnorix  was  an  yEduan,  who  plotted  against  the 
Romans.  When  Caesar  was  setting  out  to  Britain,  Dum- 
norix stirred  up  the  Gallic  leaders.  For  he  thought  that 
he  could  free  Gaul  from  the  Romans.  But  as  soon  as 

65 


Caesar  learned  of  these  matters,  he  sent  some  cavalry 
to  kill  him.  Caesar  could  not  have  crossed  to  Britain, 
if  he  had  left  such  men  on  the  continent. 

VOCABULARY  DURING  THE  SECOND  YEAR. 

The  pupils  should  continue  their  own  dictionaries  of 
words  and  phrases,  noting  especially  the  words  in  the 
sight  reading  of  the  authors  whom  I  shall  specify  in 
Part  II  of  this  chapter.  Exact  meanings  should  be  in- 
sisted upon;  e.g.: 

religio  =  superstition,  or,  religious  scruple,  or,  conscience, 

rarely  religion 
accedo  =  to  approach  and  to  be  added ;  not  to  be  confused 

_  with 
accido  =  kill,  cut  . 

o 

and  accido  =  fall,  happen. 

praesto,  are  =  (i)  furnish,  (2)  excel,  (3)  it  is  better 
(impersonally)  ;  not  to  be  confused  with  the  adverb 
praesto  =  at  hand,  ready.  Slipshod  translation  should 
never  be  tolerated  for  a  moment.  Certain  widely  spread 
errors  of  pronunciation  and  quantity  may  well  be  guarded 
against  by  impressing  the  correct  method  on  the  pupils 
as  early  as  possible.  But  too  much  attention  should  not 
be  wasted  on  the  matter.  Among  words  commonly  mis- 
pronounced, notice: 

/  / 

egredi,  not  egredi. 

populus  =  people  (but  populus  ==  poplar  tree). 

/  / 

educo  =  lead  out  (but  educo  =  educate) . 

/  j_ 

praedico  =  predict  (but  praedico  =  assert,  boast). 

accido  =  cut,  kill  (but  accido  =  fall,  happen). 

/  / 

confero,  not  confero. 

/  / 

convoco,  not  convoco. 

66 


JULIUS  CESAR 

Latin  is  the  vehicle  for  the  study  of  the  genius  of 
Rome,  of  a  civilization  vitally  interwoven  with  our 
own.  The  importance  of  emphasizing  this  vital  connec- 
tion should  always  be  present  to  the  teacher;  Latin 
should  neHbe-TStdated  as  if  it  had  nothing  in  common 
with  us.  During  the  second  year,  therefore,  an  ad- 
mirable opportunity  presents  itself  for  making  clear  to 
the  pupil  the  importance  of  the  Roman  conquest  of  the 
world  for  us;  and  the  life  of  Caesar  in  all  its  manifold 
aspects  will  have  that  peculiar  attraction  that  the  bi- 
ography of  great  men  of  action  always  exerts  on  ado- 
lescents. 

(a)  Let  the  pupil  first  read  some  brief  account  of 
Roman   history   during   Caesar's   time,   so   that  he  may 
have  the  political  and  social  background  clearly  before 
his  eye.     I  suggest  as  admirably  suited  to  the  student 
the   short   but   excellent   account   on   pages   200-225   of 
Allen's  "  Short  History  of  the  Roman  People."     [Ginn 
&  Co.]A 

(b)  The  teacher  may  well  dictate  a  condensed  bi- 
ography.    Lives   of   Caesar,   such   as   those  by  Froude, 
Trollope,   Napoleon  III,  and  H.   G.  Liddell,  should  be 
on    the    desk    for    reference.      The    "  Portraitures    of 
Caesar,"    by   Frank   Jesup    Scott    [Longmans,   Green   & 
Co.,    1903],    should   be    at   hand    to   present   the   great 
leader  more  vividly  to  the  eye.     Pupils  should  be  en- 
couraged to   form  their  own  estimates  of  Caesar;  give 
them   Ferrero's   opinion,    for   example,   and   have   them 
criticize  it. 

•^Abbott's  "History  of  Julius  Csesar"  (Harper  &  Brothers,) 
is  an  excellent  little  book  for  boys  and  girls,  presenting  the 
history  of  the  times  in  very  attractive  and  simple  form. 

67 


(c)  The   place   of   Caesar   in   the   history   of   Rome, 
his  financial  and  constitutional  reforms,  his  welding  to- 
gether of  the  Roman  world,  his  calendar,  and  the  like, 
should  be  presented  briefly,  but  concisely. 

(d)  His    personality,    as    stamped    upon    succeeding 
generations,    should    be    noted.      Here    I    would    advise 
teachers  to  read  carefully  the  following  two  admirable 
monographs : 

"  Caesar  in  der  deutschen  Literatur,"  by  Friedrich 
Gundelfinger.  Berlin.  Mayer  mid  Miiller,  1904.  129 
pages. 

"  Caesarfabeln  des  Mittelalters,"  by  Hermann  Wese- 
mann.  Lowenberg  in  Schlesien,  1879.  Druck  von 
Paul  Miiller.  (Neunter  Jahresbericht  iiber  die  hohere 
Biirgerschule  zu  Lowenberg  in  Sch.)  35  pages.A 

Of  Caesars  hold  upon  English  writers  like  Shake- 
speare I  shall  speak  when  I  deal  with  the  subject  of  cor- 
relation with  English  during  the  second  year.  The  in- 
fluence of  the  "  Commentaries  "  on  great  generals  like 
Napoleon  I  should  not  be  neglected. 

Turning  now  from  the  contemplation  of  Caesar  as  a 
man  and  of  the  force  of  his  personality,  it  will  be  fit- 
ting for  us  to  study  in  some  detail  the  conquests  of 
England,  Gaul,  and  Germany;  and  every  means  must 

A  There  is  no  book  which  will  give  a  better  and  more  inter- 
esting idea  of  the  strange  way  in  which  the  celebrated  men 
of  Rome  were  regarded  in  the  Middle  Ages  than  the  naive 
"  Gesta  Romanorum,"  those  curious  chronicles  which  supplied 
Shakespeare  and  Boccaccio  with  considerable  material  for  plots. 
There  is  an  excellent  translation  and  commentary  by  Charles 
Swan,  revised  and  corrected  by  W.  Hooper  [London,  George 
Bell  &  Sons,  1905].  For  an  anecdote  of  Caesar  and  Pompey, 
see  Tale  XIX  (p.  48);  observe  the  Moral:  "My  beloved,  by 
Pompey  understand  the  Creator  of  all  things ;  Caesar  signifies 
Adam,  who  was  the  first  man.  His  daughter  is  the  soul,  be- 
trothed to  God.  Adam  was  placed  in  Paradise  to  cultivate 
and  to  guard  it ;  but  not  fulfilling  the  condition  imposed  upon 
him,  like  Caesar,  he  was  expelled  his  native  country.  The 
Rubicon  is  baptism,  by  which  mankind  reenters  a  state  of 
blessedness." 

68 


be  taken  to  impress  upon  the  pupil  the  lasting  nature  of 
the  works  Brought  in  these  regions  by  the  Romans. 

(a)  Caesar's  own  account  of  the  conquest  of  Britain 
is  contained  in  IV,  chapters  20-38,  and  V,  8-23.     With 
this  account  the  teacher  should  by  all  means  correlate 
chapters    10-17  of  the  "Agricola  "  of  Tacitus,  either  in 
the  original   or   in   translation;   and   this   comparison  of 
the   description   of   the    IJritons   by  two  of   the  greatest 
i\<>mun   writers  proves  very  interesting  to  the  student.A 
The   further   history  of   England  to  the   withdrawal  of 
the  Romans  in  the  fifth  century  can  be  touched  upon 
brietlv  in  live  minutes.     A  convenient  book  on  the  sub- 
ject of  Caesar's  Conquest  of  Britain  is: 

"Ancient  I'.ritain  and  the  Invasion  of  Julius  Caesar," 
by  Thomas  Rice  Holmes.  Oxford,  1907.  The  Claren- 
don Press. 

Pictures  of  Roman  antiquities,  still  to  be  seen  in 
Kngland,  bring  the  past  more  closely  to  the  present.  The 
following  volume  can  be  had  from  the  library: 

"  Illustrations  of  Roman  London."  by  Charles  Roach 
Smith.  London,  1859.  Privately  printed.  T.  Rich- 
ards, 37  Great  Queen  Street.8 

(b)  The  conquest  of  Gaul  is  the  main  theme  of  the 
"  Commentaries  "  throughout.     In  addition  to  the  read- 
ing  of   books    II    and   V,    the   geographical   description 
in  I,   i,  should  be  read,  as  well  as  the  very  interesting 
account  of   Gallic   character   and   customs   in   book   VI, 
1 1-2 1.     The  great  siege  of  Alesia  and  the  account  of 
the  gallant  Yercingetorix  —  book  VII  —  might  well  be 
substituted  for  some  of  the  reading  in  V. 

A  It  will  lie  well  for  the  teacher  also  to  present  the  ac- 
counts in  Dio  Cassins,  76,  12;  Pliny  the  Elder,  N.  H.,  IV 
30  (16);  Pomponius  Mela,  III,  49-53. 

B  More   accessible    is    H.    M.    Scarth's    "  Roman    Britain " 
New    York,    J.    B.    Young    &    Co.  —  London,    Society    for    Pro- 
moting Christian  Knowledge,  Northumberland  Avenue,  Charing 
Cross,  W.  C.,  London. 


Attention  should  be  called  to  various  points  by  way  of 
making  the  narrative  mean  more  to  the  pupil. A  For 
example:  Gallic  proper  nouns  are  not  undeserving  of 
comment.  Cingetorix  means  "  king  of  warriors."  On 
this  matter  teachers  can  profitably  consult  the  following 
work,  which  is  clearly  and  elegantly  written: 

"  Les  Noms  Gaulois  chez  Cesar  et  Hirtius  de  Bello 
Gallico."  H.  D'Arbois  de  Jubainville,  avec  le  collabora- 
tion de  E.  Renault  et  G.  Dottin.  Paris,  1891.  Emile 
Bouillon,  editeur. 

Observe,  for  instance,  such  a  comment  as  this: 
"  Mandu-bracios  est '  le  fils  de  celui  qui  s'occupe  du  malt,' 
c'est  a  dire  '  de  1'orge  a  fabriquer  la  biere.'  L'orge  a 
fabriquer  la  biere,  autrement  dit  le  malt,  s'appelle*  en 
vieil  irlandais  braich,  au  genitif  bracha,  primitivement 
*  braci-s,  genitif  *  bracos.  Pline,  qui  ecrit  ce  mot  a 
1'accusatif  bracem,  nous  apprend  qu'il  etait  usite  en 
Gaule,  et,  suivant  lui,  ce  mot  designait  en  Gaule  une 
espece  de  ble,  genus  f arris  [Pline,  xviii,  62].  Alandu- 
bracio-s  est  compose  de  trois  elements." 

A  work  that  is  more  learned  and  exhaustive,  but  not 
of  the  artistic  form  of  the  above,  is : 

"  Die  bei  Gains  Julius  Caesar  vorkommenden  kel- 
tischen  Namen  in  ihrer  Echtheit  festgestellt  und  erlau- 
tert,"  von  Christian  Wilhelm  Gliick.  Munchen,  1857. 
Verlag  von  J.  G.  Cotta. 

The  modern  names  of  towns  and  rivers  mentioned  by 
Caesar  will  bring  home  to  the  student  the  lasting  effects 
of  the  pioneer  work  of  the  Romans ;  thus :  portus  Itius  = 

A  With  Caesar's  description  of  the  Druids  in  VI,  14,  compare 
that  of  Pomponius  Mela,  III,  18-20.  In  connection  with  the 
astronomical  knowledge  of  the  ancient  priests  I  would  like 
to  call  attention  to  an  article  on  "The  Uses  and  Dates  of 
Ancient  Temples;  an  interesting  Astronomical  Investigation," 
by  Sir  Norman  Lockyer  — in  the  Scientific  American  Supple- 
ment 1761,  October  2,  1909. 

70 


Boulogne,  etc.  The  teacher  will  find  the  modern  names 
in  the  geographical  appendix  of  the  following  excellent 
work : 

"  Conquete  des  Gaules.  Analyse  Raisonnee  des  Com- 
mcntaires  de  Jules  Cesar,"  par  Leon  Fallue.  Paris, 
1862.  Ch.  Tanera,  editeur.A 

The  results  of  excavations  in  France  may  be  illustrated 
by  : 

"  Excursions  Archeologiques  dans  les  montagnes 
Hduennes  de  la  Cote-d'Or.  Antiquites  de  Sainte-Sabine. 
Defaite  des  Helvetes  par  J.  Cesar."  Paul  Guillemot, 
Dijon,  1861. 

The  standard  histories,  like  Mommsen's,  and  Lives  of 
Caesar,  like  Froude's  and  Napoleon's,  of  course  give 
accounts  of  the  Roman  occupation  and  its  effects.  The 
following  work  is  very  valuable: 

"  Caesar's  Conquest  of  Gaul,"  by  Thomas  Rice  Holmes. 
London,  1899.  The  first  part  of  this  work  is  historical, 
the  second  part  critical,  and  includes  discussions  of  the 

A  Ginn  &  Company's  very  admirable  "  Classical  Atlas "  will 
aUo  be  found  most  useful  for  a  knowledge  of  the  modern 
names  of  ancient  sites  —  they  are  given  in  the  back  of  the 
"Atlas."  I  a  !-<>  recommend  most  earnestly  the  same  com- 
pany's  wall  maps  (Johnston) — 50x42. 

Suitable  maps  should,  of  course,  always  be  before  the  eyes 
of  the  pupils;  and  routes  should  be  traced  with  some  care. 
Kiepirt's  maps  are  the  standard  ones.  Useful  also  are  Riistow's 
"Atlas  zu  Caesars  Gall.  Krieg,"  in  15  Karten  u.  Planen;  and 
Oehler's  "  Bilder  Atlas  zu  Caesars  Biichern  de  Bell.  Gall./' 
Leipsig,  1890.  But  the  Atlas  of  Ginn  is  by  far  the  best  atlas  to 
give  to  secondary  pupils. 

Of  exhaustive  lexicons  to  Caesar,  these  are  standard  works: 

I.  "  Lexikon    zu    den     Schriften    Caesars    und    seiner    Fort- 
setzer  mit  Atigabe  samtlicher  Stellen,"  von  H.  Merguet.     Jena, 
1886,  i  vol.  —  Gustav  Fisher. 

II.  "Lexicon    Caesarianum    confecit    H.    Meusel."      3    vols. 
Berolini,  W.  Weber,  1887. 

III.  "  Lexicon  Caesarianum.     Menge  und  Preuss."     Leipsig, 
1890. 

71 


credibility  of  Caesar's  narrative,  chapters  on  ethnology 
and  geography,  and  notes  on  the  "  Commentaries." 

Chapter  V,  vol.  I,  of  Guizot's  "  History  of  France," 
is  excellent  for  a  study  of  Gaul  under  Roman  dominion. 

The  attitude  of  the  Romans  to  conquered  peoples 
should  by  all  means  be  briefly  explained  to  the  students  ; 
especially  their  admirable  policy  of  incorporating  sub- 
jugated countries  into  the  empire,  allowing  them  their 
own  institutions  to  a  large  extent,  adopting  their  gods 
into  the  Roman  Pantheon,  and  their  remorselessness 
when  policy  dictated  annihilation;  as  well  as  the  prac- 
tise of  taking  subjugated  nations  into  the  army.  The 
cruel  treatment  of  Vercingetorix  may  be  compared  with 
the  fate  of  Jugurtha  before  and  of  Zenobia  after  him. 

(c)  The  conquest  of  Germany  cannot  fail  to  awaken 
interest.  \Yith  the  description  of  the  character  and  cus- 
toms of  the  Germans  in  VI,  21-23,  the  "  Germania  "  of 
Tacitus  should  by  all  means  be  correlated  in  translation ; 
although  there  is  no  reason  why  selections  from  the 
original  should  not  be  presented.  The  mention  of  Gm- 
bH and  Teutones  in  II,  4,  calls  for  a  brief  rehearsal 
of  the  great  invasion  of  these  peoples  in  the  years  103- 
101  B.  C.,  and  their  subjugation  by  Marius.  The  story 
of  Arminius  and  the  fight  in  the  Teutoberg  forest  should 
be  summarized ;  and  a  review  of  the  first  barbarian 
invasion  in  390  B.  C.  to  the  sack  of  the  Eternal  City  by 
Alaric  in  410  A.  D.  may  well  be  given  at  any  time  in 
the  study  of  the  "  Commentaries." 

The  description  of  the  bridge  across  the  Rhine 
(IV,  17)  gives  an  opportunity  to  expatiate  on  the  great 
engineering  skill  of  the  Romans;  and  the  vast  bridge 
that  Trajan  built  later  may  be  compared  with  profit. 
It  is  a  good  plan  to  have  some  bright  pupil  make 
a  model  of  the  structure,  which  he  can  readily  do,  with 
some  help  from  the  teacher;  for  many  of  the  text-books 
supply  excellent  diagrams.  The  teacher  will  find  the 
following  works  useful : 

72 


"  C.  Julius  Caesars  Rheinbriicke ;  eine  tecknisch- 
kritische  Studie,"  von  August  Rheinhard.  Stuttgart, 
1883. 

"  Studio  zu  Gesars  Rheinbriicke,"  von  August  Schleus- 
-inijcr.  Miinchen,  1884.  Criticizes  the  above. 

"  C.  Julius  Caesars  Rheinbrucke,"  von  F.  Zimmer- 
lia'ckcl.  Leipsig,  1899. 

The  introductions  to  the  "  Commentaries  "  in  standard 
u  \t-books  like  Allen  and  Greenough's  give  adequate  ac- 
counts of  Roman  methods  of  warfare,  army  and  naval 
matters,  war  machines,  and  the  like ;  but  the  teacher  can 
consult  the  following  with  advantage : 

"  Das  Kriegswesen  Casars,"  von  Dr.  Franz  Frohlich. 
Zurich,  1891 — F.  Schulthess.  I.  Shaffung  und  Ges- 
taltuntf  dc-r  Krk-i^miiu-1.  II.  Aushildting  und  Erhaltung 
dcr  Kricsmittel.  III.  Gebrauch  und  Fuhrung  der  Kriegs- 
mit: 

"A  History  of  the  Art  of  War  among  the  Romans 
down  to  the  end  of  the  Empire,  with  a  detailed  ac- 
count of  the  campaigns  of  Gains  Julius  Caesar,"  by 
Theodore  A.  Dodge.  Boston,  1892. 

"Caesar's  Army,"  by  H.  P.  judson.  Ginn  &  Co., 
1887. 

CORRELATION  OF  SECOND- YEAR  LATIN 
WITH  ENGLISH 

Latin  should  be  a  powerful  help  in  the  acquisition  of 
English  and  of  power  of  appreciation,  and  should  be 
Constantly  correlated  with  our  mother-tongue.  This 
work  \vould,  however,  if  done  during  the  time  allotted 
to  Latin,  occupy  too  great  a  prominence  and  hinder  the 
pupil  in  the  task  of  learning  the  Latin  language  —  his 
chief  concern.  The  exercises  which  I  shall  next  suggest 
should,  therefore,  be  a  prescribed  part  of  the  course 
in  English  during  the  second  year. 

73 


I.  Once  a   fortnight  a  chapter  of  Caesar  should  be 
assigned  for  faithful  rendering  into  good  and  idiomatic 
English.     The  long  periodic  sentences  w%ich  occur  fre- 
quently in   the  "  Commentaries  "   are  a   fruitful  source 
of  the  horrible  thing  known  as  "  translation  English." 
As  a  rule,  after  a  pupil  has  translated  one  or  two  clauses 
of  a  complex  sentence,  he  quite  forgets  any  connection 
of   these   with   the   part   that    follows;   and   the   matter 
becomes  a  veritable  chimaera : 

Trpocrue  \ecov,  OTTiOev  Be   Spdicwv,   /necrcr;;   Be   yi^aioa. 

Pupils  should  be  taught  both  to  split  a  long  periodic 
sentence  into  shorter  ones,  and  also  to  keep  the  periodic 
structure  in  English,  if  possible.  Diligent  attention  to 
the  most  exact  English  equivalents  of  the  Latin  words 
should  be  demanded;  and  tenses  and  moods  given  their 
precise  force.  For  example :  Caesar  equites  prcemisit  qui 
viderent,  etc.,  contains  a  qui  clause  of  purpose,  which 
is  accurately  translated  "  who  were  to  see  "  and  inac- 
curately by  "who  saw"  -which  latter  would  be  qui 
tid  er  unt. 

II.  Shakespeare's  "  Julius  Caesar  "  can  be  read  with 
profit   and   pleasure   in    second-year   English   while   the 
"  Commentaries  "  are  studied  in  the  Latin  course.     Not 
to   mention   the   admirable   opportunities    for   character 
study    which   it   offers,    we   may    call   attention    to    the 
knowledge  of  antiquities  which  the  pupil  may  acquire 
by  its  perusal  —  such  matters  as  the  Lupercal,  the  Ides 
(Roman  Calendar),  and  the  like.     Grammatical  usages 
similar  to  the  Latin  are  not  uncommon  and  help  to  an 
understanding  of  syntax  —  like  the  "  ethical  "  dative  in 
"  He  plucked  me  ope  his  doublet."     The  use  of  words 
in  their  Latin  significations  will  also  be  noted,  e.g.: 

censure  =  "  judge  "    (censeo)  —  III,  2. 
proper  =  "  own  "  (proprius)  —  V,  i. 

74 


factious  =  "  active  "  (facio)  —  I    3 
prodigious  =  "  portentious  "  (prodigium)  —  I    , 

i 


. 

prevent-"  anticipate  "  (prcevcnio)  —  V    r 
a   HI.     Attention  may  be  called  to  Mr.  Bernard  Shaw's 
Csesar  and  Cleopatra,"  Addison's  "  Cato,"  Beaumont 
and  Fletcher's  "Ihe  False  One,"  and  H.  W.  Herbert" 
Ihe  Roman  Traitor." 

Topics  dealing  with  matters  connected  with  the 
Caesar  may  well  furnish  subjects   for  themes 
ither  tor  the  whole  class  or  for  individual  pupils      It 
is  an  excellent  scheme  to  assign  different  students  dif- 
:  topics  to  work  up  for  five-minute  talks;  whereby 
a  great  variety  of  interesting  material  can  be  presentee 
o    he  class  and  a  broad  field  covered  without  taking 

DUD*     I     T        °m   m°re   eSSCntial   mattCrS-      J   haVC   h^ 

fhese  ^  excellently  on   such   subjects  as 

i.     Caesar's  treatment  of  his  men  and  officers 

The  character  of  Cesar  as  presented  by  Shake- 
peare   and  as  it  impresses  us  in  the  "Commentaries." 

3-     Caesars   bridge   across   the   Rhine:   an   exposition 
With  illustrative  model. 

4.  A  brief  history  of  England  from  55  B.  C.  to  420 

5.  The  Latin  of  the  "  Commentaries  "  compared  with 
that  of  the  "  Vulgate."      [The  boy  who  wrote  and   re- 
cited on  this  pointed  out  such  matters  as  differences  in 
word  order,  use  of  direct  and  indirect  discourse,  Greek 
formations,  etc.  —  see  extracts  on  next  page.A] 

6.  The  Germans  as  described  by  Caesar  and  by  Taci- 
tus.    [Pupil  was  given  the  "  Germania  "  in  translation.] 

7.  The  "  Gallic  War  "  as  a  political  pamphlet. 

I  have  also  found  it  useful  to  require  the  whole  class 
write  a  critical  edition  of  V,  chapter  I,  with  gram- 


to 

75 


matical  notes,  sentences  for  composition  based  on  the 
text,  and  a  brief  biographical  and  historical  introduction ; 
together  with  some  similarities  of  French  and  Latin 
grammar  —  as  in  the  force  of  the  imperfect  tense. 

Pupils  should  be  encouraged  to  read  Plutarch's  "Life 
of  Caesar,"  both  to  acquire  some  knowledge  of  our  origi- 
nal sources,  and  to  become  acquainted  with  that  charm- 
ing writer. 

PART  II 

I  shall  next  discuss  suitable  reading  in  other  authors 
besides  Caesar;  this  part  of  the  work  is  for  rapid  sight- 
reading,  in  order  to  broaden  the  pupil's  horizon  and  give 
him  a  more  varied  view  of  the  literature  of  Rome.  The 
extracts  which  I  shall  suggest  are  perfectly  capable  of 
being  grasped  by  any  student  Who  has  faithfully  worked 
out  two  books  of  Caesar,  or  even  one.  The  pupil  should 
put  each  new  word  or  idiom  on  a  card  or  in  a  note- 
book, and  commit  it  to  memory. 

A  Extracts  from  this  pupil's  five-minute  paper  (boy  was  fifteen 
years  old)  :  "  The  Latin  spoken  by  the  Roman  people  was  not 
the  Latin  of  Caesar  and  Cicero,  but  what  modern  students 
call  sermo  plebeius.  .  .  .  The  Vulgate  was  intended  for 
all  classes  of  people.  .  .  .  the  Commentaries  were  intended 
only  for  the  nobility,  and  therefore  Caesar  wrote  in  the  style 
of  the  nobles.  Caesar's  writings  are  much  more  complex  than 
the  Vulgate ;  for  example :  '  Cum  ab  his  quaereret  quae  civitates 
quantaeque  in  armis  essent,  et  quid  in  bello  possent,  sic  reperiebat : 
plerosque  Belgas  esse  ortos  ab  Germanis.'  Let  us  compare 
with  this  a  few  sentences  from  the  Vulgate:  '  Dixit  autem  ei 
Jesus,  Cur  me  dicis  bonnm?  nemo  bonus,  nisi  unus,  nempe 
Deus.  Ille  autem  dix$.t,  Hfec  oninia  observavi  a  iuventute  mea.' 
It  can  be  seen,  by  comparing  these  sentences,  that  Caesar  uses 
complex  constructions  of  subordinate  clauses  with  the  sub- 
junctive; the  Vulgate  uses  the  simple  sentence  with  the  indica- 
tive. Caesar  uses  indirect  discourse  often ;  the  Vulgate  rarely. 
Caesar  is  fond  of  the  periodic  sentence;  it  is  rare  in  the  Vul- 
gate. .  .  .  The  word  order  in  the  Vulgate  is  very  like 
the  English.  .  .  .  Many  words  in  the  Vulgate  have  an 
ecclesiastical  meaning  which  they  never  have  in  Caesar,  like 
'fides'  'faith/'5 

76 


I.  The  five  Readers  which  I  have  already  mentioned 
are  in  all  respects  admirable,  and  may  be  used  throughout 
the  high-school  course ;  the  teacher  can  readily  choose 
those  selections  which  are  best  adapted  to  the  degree  of 
progress  of  the  several  classes. 

II.  "  Stories  of  Great  Men  —  from  Romulus  to  Sci- 
pio  Af ricanus  Minor,"  by  F.  Conway,  London  —  George 
Bell  &  Sons,   1900   (with  vocabulary).     Extracts   from 
Livy,     Florus,    Velleius    Paterculus,    Nepos,    Cicero  — 
sometimes  as  in  the  original,  sometimes  abridged. 

III.  "  Scalse   Tertise,"  by  E.   C.   Marchant,  London, 
1900  —  George    Bell    &    Sons    (with   vocabulary).      Se- 
lect passages  from  Phaedrus,  Ovid,  Nepos,  Cicero. 

IV.  "Via  Latina,"  by  William  Collar  — Ginn  &  Co. 
Selections  from  Suetonius,  Nepos,  Eutropius,  etc. 

The  following  authors  are  readily  accessible  in  the 
excellent  and  cheap  Teulner  texts ;  and  the  value  of 
placing  the  ichole  of  an  author  in  the  hands  of  the  pupil 
I  have  alreac'v  discussed. 

V.  Eutropius:    Breviarium     (Compendium    of    Ro- 
man History),  ed.  Ruehl,   1897.     45   Pfennig.     Here  is 
a  specimen  of  this  little  work,  to  show  how  well  it  is 
adapted  to  quick  reading  by  second-year  pupils : 

Anno  urbis  conditae  sexcentesimo  nonagesimo  tertio  C. 
Julius  Caesar,  qui  postea  imperavit,  cum  L.  Bibulo  consul 
est  factus.  Decreta  est  ei  Gallia  et  Illyricum  cum  legioni- 
bus  decem.  Is  primus  vicit  Helvetios,  qui  mine  Sequani 
appellantur,  deinde  vincenclo  per  bella  gravissima  usque 
ad  Oceanum  Brittanicum  processit.  [VI,  17.] 

VI.  Aulus    Gellius:    Noctes   Atticae,   ed.    C.    Hosius, 
1903.      (Vol.   I,   M.    i .80,  vol.   II,  M.  2.40.)      Offers  a 
great  variety  of  stories  dealing  with  history,  grammar, 
philosophy,  etc.     Second-year  students  might  easily  read, 
e.g.: 

In  antiquis  annalibus  memoria  super  libris  Sibyllinis 
haec  prodita  est :  Anus  hospita  atque  incognita  ad  Tarqiii- 

77 


nium  Superbum  regem  acliit  novem  libros  ferens,  quos 
esse  dicebat  clivina  oracula :  eos  velle  vemmdare.  Tarqui- 
nitis  pretium  percontatus  est.  Mulier  nimium  atque 
immensum  poposcit ;  rex,  quasi  anus  setate  desiperet, 
derisit,  etc.  [I,  19]. 

The  Vulgate  should  by  all  means  be  used.  Objection 
might  be  made  for  sectarian  reasons ;  but  it  seems  to  me 
that  there  is  no  reason  why  the  Latin  should  not  be 
read  without  comment : 

VII.  Novum  Testamentum  et  Psalmi  Latine,  ed. 
Beza.  Berolini,  sumptibus  Societatis  Bibliophilorum  Bri- 
tannioe  et  externse,  MDCCCCV  (50  cents).  A  very 
handsome  little  edition,  that  will  ornament  any  book- 
shelf. The  following  will  illustrate  the  style: 

Et  fecit  ei  Levi  epulum  magnum  domi  suae ;  eratque 
turba  multa  publicanorum  et  aliorum  qui  cum  ipsis  ac- 
cumbebant.  Obmurmurabant  autem  eis  scribse  ac  Phari- 
ssei  dicentes  ad  discipulos  eius,  Quare  cum  publicanis 
et  peccatoribus  editis  et  bibitis?  Et  respondens  Jesus 
dixit  eis,  Non  opus  est  iis,  qui  sani  sunt,  medico,  etc. 
[Luke  5:  29-31]. 


CHAPTER  VI 
The  Third  Year  of  Latin 

PART  I 

The  third  year  presents  the  question  of  what  author 
can  best  serve  for  intensive  study;  shall  it  be  Cicero  or 
Vergil?  The  main  objection  to  Vergil  is,  that  he  de- 
mands a  greater  maturity  for  appreciation;  and  that  his 
poetical  usages,  so  different  from  the  norm  of  prose, 
are  very  confusing  to  the  student,  who  has  just  spent 
two  years  in  learning  fixed  rules.  Experience  does  not 

78 


prove  that  these  arguments  are  necessarily  valid;  pupils 
do,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  often  declare  Vergil  easier  than 
Cicero;  and  the  change  to  poetry,  after  two  years  of 
continuous  prose,  seems  not  infrequently  a  pleasant  break 
of  monotony.  The  individuality  of  the  class  will  per- 
haps be  our  best  guide;  and  Vergil  or  Cicero  may  be 
presented  according  to  their  adaptability  to  the  several 
groups  of  students.  For  convenience  I  shall  assume 
that  Cicero  is  taken  for  intensive  study  during  the  third 
year;  and  the  first  part  of  this  chapter  will  be  concerned 
with  the  teaching  of  that  author. 

The  reading  of  Cicero  is  confined,  in  our  secondary 
schools,  to  six  or  more  orations.  The  number  of  the 
schools  which  study  any  other  part  of  his  writings,  such 
as  the  "  Letters  "  or  "  Essays,"  is  so  small  a  per  cent 
of  the  whole  as  to  be  insignificant.  I  conceive  the 
prevalent  method  to  be  absolutely  wrong  and  unjustifi- 
able; and  the  matter  is  important  enough  to  merit  ex- 
tended discussion. 

I.  The  "  Orations  "  present  but  one  side  of  Cicero. 
Let  me  remind  the  reader  again,  that  the  vast  majority 
of  our  high-school  pupils  either  do  not  go  to  college  at 
all,  or  do  not  take  Latin  when  they  get  there.  To 
exhibit  a  writer  in  but  one  aspect  is,  then,  unjust  to 
that  writer,  and  leaves  a  false  impression  in  the  minds 
of  the  students.  It  is  important  that  Cicero  should  stand 
out  in  his  true  position  in  the  history  of  literature  and 
thought.  When  we  shall  have  discovered  wherein  his 
real  greatness  consists,  we  shall  be  able  more  clearly  to 
see  on  what  works  the  stress  should  be  laid.  A  review 
of  the  opinions  of  some  acknowledged  authorities  of 
the  first  rank  will  aid  us  in  our  attempt. 

The  judgment  of  Quintilian  is  famous  [X,  i,  105- 
TI3]  :  "  Quare  non  immerito  ab  hominibus  aetatis  suae 
regnare  in  iudiciis  dictus  est,  apud  posteros  vero  id 
consecutus,  ut  Cicero  iam  non  hominis  nomen  sed  elo- 

79 


quantise  habeatur.  Hunc  igitur  spectemus,  hoc  proposi- 
tum  nobis  sit  exemplum,  ille  se  profecisse  sciat,  cui 
Cicero  valde  placebit."  Some  excerpts  from  Tacitus 
will  supplement  excellently  the  ancient  views  of  Cicero 
[Dial,  de  orat.  22-27]  :  "  Primus  enim  excoluit  oratio- 
nem,  primus  et  verbis  clilectum  adhibuit  et  composi- 
tion! artem,  locos  quoque  laetiores  attentavit  et  quasdam 
sententias  invenit,  utique  in  iis  orationibus,  quas  iam 
senior  et  iuxta  finem  vitae  composuit,  id  est,  postquam 
magis  profecerat  usuque  et  experimentis  didicerat  quod 
optimum  dicendi  genus  esset.  Nam  priores  eius  ora- 
tiones  non  carent  vitiis  antiquitatis :  lentus  est  in  princi- 
piis,  longus  in  narrationibus,  otiosus  circa  excessus ; 
tarde  commovetur,  raro  incalescit;  pauci  sensus  apte  et 
cum  quodam  lumine  terminantur.  .  .  .  adstrictior 
Calvus,  numerosior  Asinius,  splendidior  Gesar,  amarior 
Cselius,  gravior  Brutus,  vehementior  et  plenior  et  valen- 
tior  Cicero.  et  Calvum  et  Asinium  et  ipsum 

Ciceronem  credo  solitos  [et  invidere]  et  livere  et  ceteris 
humanse  infirmitatis  vitiis  adfici."  Longinus,  comparing 
Cicero  and  Demosthenes,  calls  the  former  a  wide  con- 
rlagation,  the  latter  a  thunderbolt. 

So  much  for  the  opinions  of  the  ancients.  The 
judgment  of  the  modern  scholar  will  cover  a  wider  field ; 
for  Quintilian  was  concerned  only  with  Cicero's  style, 
as  a  means  of  rounding  out  the  perfect  orator.  But 
we  of  to-day  have  nineteen  centuries  to  survey ;  and  we 
measure  Cicero  not  merely  as  a  stylist,  but  also  as  a 
man,  whose  influence  on  posterity  has  been  large.  The 
opinion  of  Theodore  Mommsen  will  follow  next: 

"  Thus  oratorical  authorship,"  says  Mommsen  [V, 
pp.  504  ff.  —  translation  of  Dickson] ,  "  emancipated  from 
politics  was  naturalized  in  the  Roman  literary  world  by 
Cicero.  We  have  already  had  occasion  several  times  to 
mention  this  many-sided  man.  As  a  statesman  without 
insight,  idea,  or  purpose,  he  figured  successively  as  demo- 

80 


crat,  as  aristocrat,  and  as  a  tool  of  the  monarchs,  and 
was  never  more  than  a  short-sighted  egotist.  .  .  .  He 
was  valiant  in  opposition  to  sham  attacks,  and  he  knocked 
down  many  walls  of  pasteboard  with  a  loud  din;  no 
serious  matter  was  ever,  either  in  good  or  evil,  decided 
by  him,  and  the  execution  of  the  Catilinarians  in  par- 
ticular was  far  more  due  to  his  acquiescence  than  to 
his  instigation.  In  a  literary  point  of  view  we  have 
already  noticed  that  he  was  the  creator  of  the  modern 
Latin  prose ;  his  importance  rests  on  his  mastery  of 
style,  and  it  is  only  as  a  stylist  that  he  shows  confidence 
in  himself.  In  the  character  of  an  author,  on  the  other 
hand,  he  stands  quite  as  low  as  in  that  of  a  states- 
man. .  .  .  He  was,  in  fact,  so  thoroughly  a  dabbler, 
that  it  was  pretty  much  a  matter  of  indifference  to 
what  work  he  applied  his  hand.  By  nature  a  journalist 
in  the  worst  sense  of  the  term.  .  .  .  there  was  no 
department  in  which  he  could  not  with  the  help  of  a 
few  books  have  rapidly  got  up  by  translation  or  compila- 
tion a  readable  essay.  .  .  .  It  is  scarcely  needful  to 
add  that  such  a  statesman  and  such  a  litterateur  could 
not,  as  a  man.  exhibit  aught  else  than  a  thinly  varnished 
superficiality  and  heartlessness.  Must  we  still  describe 
the  orator?  The  great  author  is  also  a  great  man.  .  .  . 
Cicero  had  no  conviction  and  no  passion ;  he  was  nothing 
but  an  advocate,  and  not  a  good  one.  .  .  .  the  abso- 
lute want  of  political  discernment  in  the  orations  on 
constitutional  questions  and  of  juristic  deduction  in  the 
forensic  addresses,  the  egotism  forgetful  of  its  duty 
and  constantly  losing  sight  of  the  cause  while  thinking 
of  the  advocate,  the  dreadful  barrenness  of  thought  in 
the  Ciceronian  orations  must  revolt  every  reader  of 
feeling  and  judgment." 

Thus  Mommsen;  and  we  shall  now  see  what  Ferrero 
has  to  say  on  the  same  subject  ["  Greatness  and  Decline 
of  Rome,"  vol.  Ill,  pp.  188  ff.  —  translation  of  Chay- 

81 


tor]  :  "  Modern  historians  have  an  easy  task  when  they 
proceed  to  point  out  the  weaknesses,  the  vacillation,  and 
the  inconsistencies  of  Cicero;  they  forget,  however,  that 
the  same  observations  would  equally  apply  to  any  one 
of  his  contemporaries,  even  to  Oesar  himself,  and  they 
are  the  more  obviously  true  in  Cicero's  case  only  because 
he  has  himself  exposed  them  to  our  view.  Cicero's  per- 
sonality and  the  part  in  history  which  he  played  are  of 
greater  significance  than  this.  In  a  society  where  for 
centuries  noble  birth,  wealth,  or  military  talents  had 
been  the  only  openings  to  political  power.  Cicero  had  been 
the  first,  though  he  possessed  none  of  these  advantages, 
to  enter  the  governing  class,  to  'hold  the  highest  offices, 
and  to  govern  with  nobles  and  millionaires  and  generals 
simply  by  reason  of  his  admirable  literary  and  oratorical 
style,  and  of  the  lucidity  with  which  he  was  able  to  ex- 
pound to  the  public  the ,  deep  complexities  of  Greek 
philosophy.  .  .  .  Cicero  was  the  first  of  those  men 
of  letters  who  have  been  throughout  the  history  of  our 
civilization  either  the  pillars  of  state  or  the  workers  of 
revolution;  the  great  company  of  rhetoricians,  lawyers, 
and  publicists  under  the  Pagan  Empire  are  succeeded  by 
the  apologists  and  fathers  of  the  Church;  monks,  law- 
yers, theologians,  doctors,  and  readers  appear  in  the 
Middle  Ages,  humanists  at  the  time  of  the  Renaissance ; 
encyclopaedists  appear  in  the  eighteenth  century  in 
France;  barristers,  journalists,  political  writers,  and  pro- 
fessors in  our  own  day.  Cicero  may  have  made  many 
a  grave  political  error,  but  none  the  less  his  historical 
importance  can  compare  with  that  of  Caesar,  and  is  but 
little  inferior  to  that  of  St.  Paul  or  St.  Augustine.  He 
had,  moreover,  all  the  fine  qualities  of  the  dynasty  which 
he  founded,  and  of  their  defects  only  the  most  venial. 
He  was  one  of  those  unusual  characters  rarely  to  be 
found  even  in  the  world  of  thought  and  of  letters,  who 
have  no  ambition  for  power,  no  thirst  for  wealth,  but 

82 


merely  the  far  nobler  desire,  whatever  the  vanity  which 
it  implies,  to  become  the  objects  of  admiration.     .     .     . 
He  alone  attempted  to  govern  the  world,  not  with  the 
foolish  obstinacy  of  Cato,  or  with  the  cynical  opportu- 
nism of  others,  but  upon  a  rational  system  based  upon 
loyalty  to  republican  tradition  amid  the  prevailing  dis- 
order, based  upon  the  effort  to  harmonize  the  austere 
virtues  of  the  Latin  race  with  the  art  and  wisdom  of 
the  Greeks  and  to  disseminate  throughout  the  Roman 
aristocracy  that  sense  of  equity  and  moderation  which 
can  often  mollify  the  constitutional  brutality  or  blind- 
ness of   the   principle   that   might  is   right.     Historians 
have   jested   lightly  upon   Cicero   and  his  Utopias;   his 
contemporaries  must  have  thought  more  of  them,  seeing 
that  fifteen  years  later  they  attempted  to  put  many  of 
them  into  practice." 

These  are  the  views,  conflicting  with  each  other,  of 
two  of  the  greatest  historians  of  modern  times.    Neither 
of  them  expresses  the. real  case;  and  the  best  summary 
of  Cicero's  work  will  be  found  in  -Mr.  Mackail's  little 
masterpiece,    "  Latin   Literature,'"'   pp.    62    ff.    [London, 
John   Murray,   Albemarle   Street,    1899  —  third   impres- 
sion).    This  is  the  careful  judgment:  "The  claims  of 
Cicero  to  a  place  among  the  first  rank  of  Roman  states- 
men have  been  fiercely  canvassed  by  modern  critics ;  and 
both  in  oratory  and  philosophy  some  excess  of  venera- 
tion once  paid  to  him  has  been  replaced  by  an  equally  ex- 
cessive  depreciation.     The   fault   in  both   estimates   lay 
in   the   fact   that   they   were   alike   based   on   secondary 
issues.     Cicero's  unique  and  imperishable  glory  is  not, 
as  he  thought  himself,  that  of  having  put  down  the  revo- 
lutionary   movement    of    Catiline,    nor,    as    later    ages 
thought,   that   of    having   rivalled   Demosthenes    in   the 
Second  Philippic,  or  confuted  atheism  in  the  '  De  Na- 
tura  Deorum.'     It  is  that  he  created  a  language  which 
remained    for    sixteen    centuries    that    of    the    civilized 

83 


world,  and  used  that  language  to  create  a  style  which 
nineteen  centuries  have  not  replaced,  and  in  some  re- 
spects have  scarcely  altered.  He  stands  in  prose,  like 
Vergil  in  poetry,  as  the  bridge  between  the  ancient  and 
modern  world.  Before  his  time  Latin  prose  was,  from 
a  wide  point  of  view,  but  one  among  many  local  an- 
cient dialects.  As  it  left  his  hands,  it  had  become  a 
universal  language,  one  which  had  definitely  superseded 
all  others,  Greek  included,  as  the  type  of  civilized  ex- 
pression. .  .  .  Ciceronian  prose  is  practically  the 
prose  of  the  human  race ;  not  only  of  the  Roman  Em- 
pire of  the  first  and  second  centuries,  but  of  Lactantius 
arid  Augustine,  of  the  mediaeval  Church,  of  the  earlier 
and  later  Renaissance,  and  even  now,  when  the  Renais- 
sance is  a  piece  of  past  history,  of  the  modern  world 
to  which  the  Renaissance  was  the  prelude.  ...  It 
is  in  the  work  of  this  astonishing  year  (45-44  B.  C.) 
which,  on  the  whole,  represents  Cicero's  permanent  con- 
tribution to  letters  and  to  human  thought,  If  his  phi- 
losophy seems  now  to  have  exhausted  its  influence,  it 
is  because  it  has  in  great  measure  been  absorbed  into  the 
fabric  of  civilized  society.  ...  To  less  informed 
or  less  critical  ages  than  our  own,  the  absolute  contri- 
bution of  Cicero  to  ethics  and  metaphysics  seemed  com- 
parable to  that  of  the  great  Greek  thinkers ;  the  '  De 
Natura  Deo  rum '  was  taken  as  a  workable  argument 
against  atheism,  and  the  thin  and  wire-drawn  discussions 
of  the  Academics  were  studied  with  an  attention  hardly 
given  to  the  founder  of  the  Academy.  When  a  sounder 
historical  method  brought  these  writings  into  their  real 
proportion,  it  was  inevitable  that  the  scale  should  swing 
violently  to  the  other  side.  .  .  .  The  violence 
of  this  attack  has  now  exhausted  itself. 
Cicero.  .  .  .  did  for  the  Empire  and  the  Middle 
Ages  what  Lucretius  with  his  far  greater  philosophic 
genius  totally  failed  to  do — created  forms  of  thought 


in  which  the  life  of  philosophy  grew,  and  a  body  of 
expression  which  alone  made  its  growth  in  the  Latin- 
speaking  world  possible;  and  to  that  world  he  presented 
a  political  ideal  which  profoundly  influenced  the  whole 
course  of  European  history,  even  up  to  the  French 
Revolution.  Without  Cicero,  the  Middle  Ages  would 
not  have  had  Augustine  or  Aquinas ;  but,  without  him, 
the  movement  which  annulled  the  Middle  Ages  would 
have  had  neither  Mirabeau  nor  Pitt.  .  .  .  The  art 
of  letter-writing  suddenly  rose  in  Cicero's  hands  to  its 
full  perfection.  It  fell  to  the  lot  of  no  later  Roman  to 
have  at  once  such  mastery  over  familiar  style,  and  con- 
temporary events  of  such  engrossing  and  ever-changing 
interest  on  which  to  exercise  it.  All  the  great  letter- 
writers  of  more  modern  ages  have  more  or  less,  con- 
sciously or  unconsciously,  followed  the  Ciceronian 
model.  England  of  the  eighteenth  century  was  peculiarly 
rich  in  them;  but  Horace  Walpole,  Cowper,  Gray  him- 
self would  willingly  have  acknowledged  Cicero  as  their 
master." 

II.  Cicero's  real  greatness  consists,  therefore,  firstly, 
in  his  mastery  of  style,  and  secondly,  in  his  work  as  a 
humanizer,  the  interpreter  of  Greek  philosophy  to  the 
Western  world  in  language  that  is  classic  and  method 
that  is  popular.  The  "  Orations  "  do  not  constitute  his 
greatness.  Here,  indeed,  we  see  the  colossal  egotist: 
"  O  f  ortunatam  natam  me  consule  Romam !  "  We  see 
the  pseudo-statesman;  and  above  all,  the  jury  lawyer. 
"  Nil  ad  ius;  ad  Ciceronem,"  said  the  great  jurist  Aquila 
to  a  client  who  had  no  case.  When  it  suits  his  purpose, 
Cicero  often  lies  deliberately  or  suppresses  the  truth.  In 
grandiloquent  periods  he  throws  dust  in  the  eyes  of  the 
jurors.  The  present  age  in  which  we  are  living 
is  rapidly  growing  out  of  the  pyrotechnic  style  of  speak- 
ing; it  prefers  Lincoln's  Gettysburg  speech  to  Edward 
Everett's  floridity;  and  many  paragraphs  in  Daniel 

85 


Webster's  Bunker  Hill  Oration  would  raise  a  laugh,  if 
declaimed  to-day.  The  truth  can  be  expressed  as  grandly 
as  a  lie;  the  Gospels  are  more  convincing  than  Seneca. 
There  is  no  audience  that  has  a  keener  sense  of  what  is 
fitting  than  boys  and  girls  in  the  adolescent  stage;  they 
pierce  Cicero's  weaknesses  at  once;  oration  after  ora- 
tion is  forced  upon  them;  and  the  result  is  nausea  so 
far  as  Latin  is  concerned  and  a  totally  one-sided  impres- 
sion of  Cicero  and  Rome.  Teachers  themselves  would 
never  dream  of  reading  six  orations  one  after  the  other 
for  pleasure  or  profit ;  nor  would  any  teacher  of  English 
read  nothing  but  Burke  for  a  whole  year;  but  in  the 
teaching  of  Latin  we  can  only  say  with  Job,  "  Where 
shall  wisdom  be  found  ?  " 

I  have  mentioned  that  a  keen  sense  of  what  is  fitting 
is  characteristic  of  the  adolescent.  Some  further  analy- 
sis of  this  period  of  life  will  assist  us  in  discovering 
whether  other  works  than  the  "  Orations  "  are  not  better 
suited  to  our  boys  and  girls. 

Adolescents  are  in  that  age  that  is  passionately  fond 
of  action.  They  are  interested  in  the  concrete;  hence 
biography,  the  study  of  real  men  and  their  deeds,  at- 
tracts them  especially.  The  personal  interest  is  para- 
mount. Adolescence  is,  moreover,  a  chivalrous  period ; 
problems  of  ethics,  as  of  fair  play  in  sport  and  of  cheat- 
ing in  an  examination,  arouse  eager  discussion.  At  the 
same  time  the  adolescent  is  not  yet  ready  to  grasp  the 
deeper  sides  of  philosophy;  the  fundamentals  of  ethics 
are  fitted  to  him,  but  not  those  of  metaphysics. 

What,  then,  can  be  better  adapted  to  these  boys  and 
girls  than  Cicero's  "  Letters  "  and  some  of  the  "  Es- 
says "  ?  In  the  "  Letters  "  we  have  Cicero  the  man,  a 
very  human  man.  baring  the  minutest  details  of  his 
own  varied  life  and  of  the  fascinating  political  and  so- 
cial world  that  surrounded  him.  The  "  Essays "  are 
deliberately  written  in  a  popular  style;  hence  suited  to 
the  comprehension  of  the  amateur  in  philosophy.  And 

86 


both  "  Letters  "  and  "  Essays  "  are  in  every  respect  as 
"  classical  "  in  style  as  any  of  the  "  Orations." 

Thus  we  arrive  at  a  criterion  for  deciding  what  parts 
of  Cicero  ought  to  be  read  in  secondary  schools.  We 
cannot  afford  entirely  to  neglect  the  "  Orations  " ;  nor 
may  high-school  students  comprehend  all  the  "  Letters  " 
or  "  Essays.'7  Careful  selection  must,  of  course,  be 
made ;  and  I  suggest  the  following  combinations  as 
adapted  to  boys  and  girls  who  are  studying  Cicero. 

I.  Catiline  I.  Archias.  De  Amicitia.   Selected  Letters. 

II.  Philippic  II.     Roscius  Amerinus.     De  Amicitia. 
Selected  Letters. 

III.  Marcellus.     Verres   I.     De   Amicitia.     Selected 
Letters. 

Not  the  least  pleasant  thing  connected  with  the  read- 
ing of  the  "'  Essays  "  and  "  Letters  "  is  the  change  of 
style ;  we  say  good-bye  to  a  rhetoric  which  can,  as  in 
Archias  II,  string  out  periodic  bombast  half  a  page  in 
length  for  each  sentence.  There  are  numerous  editions 
of  "  Selected  Letters,"  of  the  "  De  Amicitia,"  and  of  the 
"  De  Senectnte  "  easily  procurable  from  the  large  pub- 
lishing houses. 

POINTS  TO  BE  NOTED  IN  THE  TEACHING  OF 
CICERO 

As  Caesar  served  for  the  study  more  of  the  external 
side  of  Rome,  its  conquests,  its  treatment  of  subjugated 
peoples,  and  the  like,  so  the  study  of  Cicero  will  bring  us 
more  intimately  in  contact  with  the  inner  social,  political, 
and  religious  life  of  Rome  itself. 

Short  and  adequate  biographies  of  Cicero  are  usually 
prefixed  to  our  school  editions;  but  the  teacher  will  do 
well  to  recommend  to  the  pupils  and  to  have  on  the  desk 
for  ready  reference  one  of  the  "  Lives  "  of  the  following 
authors :  Middleton,  Forsyth,  Trollope,  Collins,  and  Bois- 


sier.  The  teacher  will  also  find  the  work  of  Suringar 
interesting;  it  consists  of  extracts  from  all  of  Cicero's 
writings  that  tell  the  story  of  his  own  life. 

Excellent  pictures  of  Roman  society  in  the  period  with 
which  we  are  dealing  will  be  found  in  Becker's  "  Callus," 
Boissier's  "  Cicero  and  His  Friends,"  and  Church's 
"  Roman  Life  in  the  Days  of  Cicero."  These  works 
seldom  fail  to  invite  the  attention  of  the  student. 

The  teacher  will  find  A.  H.  J.  Greenidge's  "  Legal 
Procedure  in  Cicero's  Time  "  [Oxford,  Clarendon  Press, 
1901]  a  most  useful  volume  for  a  better  understanding 
of  the  §<  Orations  "  that  deal  with  strictly  legal  matters. 

Merguet's  "  Lexicon  "  is  the  standard  dictionary  for 
our  author. 

To  gain  a  better  appreciation  of  Cicero's  style,  the 
perusal  of  a  dozen  works  will  by  no  means  yield  the 
profit  of  studying  carefully  the  "'  Etudes  sur  le  Style  des 
Discours  de  Ciceron  "  by  L.  Laurand  [Paris,  Librairie 
Hachette  et  Cie — 1907].  This  work  is  one  of  those 
masterpieces  in  which  the  French  excel;  it  is  scholarly, 
most  interesting,  and  written  in  a  style  of  much  elegance 
—  it  were  devoutly  to  be  wished  that,  we  could  say  as 
much  of  German  and  American  doctors'  theses. 

Opinions  held  of  Cicero  in  various  ages  from  classical 
times  through  the  eighteenth  century  will  be  found  ably 
presented  in  Th.  Zielinski's  "  Cicero  im  Wandel  der 
Jahrhunderte  "  [Teubner,  Leipsig  und  Berlin,  1908]. 

For  a  comprehension  of  the  Roman  constitution,  the 
accounts  in  editions  of  Cicero  like  that  of  Allen  and 
Greenough  are  generally  very  good.  I  would  like  to 
emphasize  one  point  here:  an  effort  should  always  be 
made  to  connect  Roman  government  with  those  things 
of  our  society  to-day  which  it  resembles.  If,  for  ex- 
ample, xdilis  is  translated  by  "  police  commissioner," 
prcetor  by  "  supreme  judge,"  and  muicstor  by  "  secretary 
of  the  treasury/'  the  officers  of  the  Roman  state  adminis- 

88 


:ration  are  more  likely  to  become  real  to  the  pupil's  mind 
;han  if  they  are  rendered  merely  by  tedilc,  praetor,  and 
luaestor. 

The  reading  of  Cicero  demands  special  notice.  We 
lave  known  for  a  long  time  that  the  great  orators  of 
mtiquity,  using  languages  in  which  quantity  played  so 
.arge  a  part,  were  fond  of  closing  their  periods  in/ 
rhythmic  cadences.  Some  savants,  like  Wolf,  had  made 
studies  on  the  subject;  but  the  matter  has  recently  been 
nvestigated  exhaustively,  so  far  as  Cicero  is  concerned, 
)y  Th.  Zielinski  ["  Das  Clauselgesetz  in  Ciceros  Reden," 
/on  Th.  Zielinski-Leipsig-Dieterich'sche  Verlags-Buch- 
landlung,  1904].  Zielinski  has  analyzed  the  endings  of 
ill  the  sentences  of  all  the  orations  of  Cicero — 17902 
~lausula?  —  and  has  found  that  they  follow  fairly  de- 
ined  types.  The  regular  usages  of  prosody  are  observed 
—  elision,  syllaba  anceps,  etc;  and  the  results  are  as 
follows : 

V  :  "  veree  clausulse  "— cretic  base. 

Per  cent 
23.3 

11.1 
7.2 

10. 
8.7 

60.3 

L  :  "  licitse  " — permitting  resolutions. 

U  U  U  -  -  I   -  U  436  2.4 

2  -  U  iPl)   I   -  U  772  4.3 

s~^ 

3  —  U  —  I  U  U  U  278  1.6 
12  u"u  U  U^U   I  -  U  108  .6 
1  l/~\J  U  -   I  —  U  —  190  1.1 
1  U  U  —  -  I  —  U  -  266  1.5 
:  U  --  U  U   I   -  U  —  127  _£ 

Carried  over 2177  12.2 

89 


— 

u 

Form 
-     1      - 

U 

No. 
4184 

— 

u 

—     1      - 

U     — 

1991 

— 

- 

1      

u   - 

1297 

— 

u 

—     1      — 

u   —   u 

1787 

— 

— 

I     - 

u   —  u 

Total 

1586 

10845 

Brought  over       .... 

2177 

12.2 

2tr 

—   u    u   — 

1      -    u 

_ 

239 

1.3 

2tr 

—   u   —   — 

1    -   u 

— 

207 

1.2 

J> 

u    u    u   — 

1      -    u 

—   u 

192 

1.1 

J1 

u    u    -   — 

1    —   u 

—   u 

226 

1.3 

3- 

_y_  —   u    u 

I    -    u 

—   u 

243 

1.4 

J' 

-   u   -    1 

S~\ 

u    u    u 

—  u 

211 

1.2 

3" 

—  —  -    1 

u    u    u 

-    u 

161 

.9 

3"" 

—   u    u   — 

I    —   u 

—   u 

413 

2.4 

J" 

—   u    -   — 

I    —   u 

—    u 

307     ' 

1.7 

4 

-   u    -    I 

—   u   — 

u   — 

184 

1. 

y 

_    _    __      1 

_    u   — 

u   — 

196 

1.1 

Total 

4776 

26.8 

M  :  "  malse"— too  much  like  poetry. 

e.g. 
_U-.      |      —     U     —     U     —     U 

—      I      -U-U-U 

—     U    -      I        -U-U-U     — 
U      U     U     —      I       U     U     U 

Total,    1103  ==  6.1  per  cent. 

P  :  "  pessimas  " — prevalence  of  dactyls. 

1  -    u    u    -      I     —    u  54  .3 

2  -     u    -  •      I        -     u     u      I  87  .5 

3  —    u    —     I        -    u     u      I       -    u         107  .6 

Total  248  1.4 

S  :  "  selectae." 

1  -I  34  .2 

2  —     u     -       I     •  235  1.3 

2  -|  44  .2 

3  —     u     -        I     —    —    -  501  2.8 
3—1                                                116  .7 

Total  930  5.2 


There  is,  no  doubt,  much  to  be  said  on  both  sides  of 
is  theory;  but  it  is  a  theory  to  be  reckoned  with.  By 
ading,  in  accordance  with  Zielinski's  suggestions,  the 
agments  that  we  possess  of  orators  like  Antonius,  we 
.n  easily  see  how  it  was  that  the  populace  which  heard 
m  burst  into  spontaneous  applause;  whereas  if 
cited  like  ordinary  prose  the  words  do  not  seem  par- 
:ularly  forcible.  We  know,  too,  that  a  Roman  audience 
as  more  delighted  with  harmonious  periods  and  rhyth- 
ic  cadences,  even  though  there  was  no  real  argument 
liind  them,  than  with  weighty  matter  prosaically  ex- 
•essed. 

CORRELATION  WITH  ENGLISH 

As  it  was  found  useful  to  correlate  the  study  of  Caesar 
ith  the  English  course,  so  a  similar  method  will  be 
>und  profitable  in  the  case  of  Cicero.  Execises  in 
inslation  of,  say,  one  whole  chapter  a  month  should  be 
sisted  upon.  Cicero  is  far  more  difficult  to  translate 
ithf Lilly  than  Caesar:  and  I  desire  to  call  attention  here 

several  expressions  about  which  teachers  themselves 
e  very  careless.  Take,  for  example,  an  at  the  beginning 

a  sentence.  This  is  usually  rendered  by  "  or-"  in  99 
r  cent  of  all  cases ;  and  makes  absolute  nonsense,  too, 

that  signification;  but  pupils  bother  very  little  about 
nse,  .ind  many  teachers  do  not  have  time  to  worry 
•er  such  matters.  Nevertheless,  the  rendering  "  or  " 
not  Cicero ;  and  it  is  our  duty  to  find  as  exact  equiva- 
its  as  possible.  Note  what  Professor  Lane  remarks 

1508]  :  "A  question  with  an,  less  often  annc,  or  if 
gative,  with  an  non,  usually  challenges  or  comments 
iphatically  on  something  previously  expressed  or  im- 
:ed;  as,  '  An  habent  quas  gallin;e  manus?  '  (PL  Ps.  29.) 
/"hat,  what,  do  hens  have  hands?  >:  There  is  a  good 
stance  of  an  in  Catiline  I,  I,  3  —  "An  vero  vir  amplis- 
nus,  P.  Scipio,"  etc.  —  translate  this  an  by  "  or  "  and 

91 


note  what  gibberish  the  sentence  becomes ;  render  it  by 
"Why,  P.  Scipio/'  etc.,  and  the  real  force  of  the  Latin 
is  felt.  The  datives  known  as  "  ethical,"  "  datives  of  ad- 
vantage," and  the  like,  are  poorly  translated  or  entirely 
passed  over  by  most  boys  and  girls ;  yet  they  have  as 
distinct  a  force  as  the  datives  which  are  so  similarly 
used  in  German.  Professor  Lane's  renderings  may  well 
serve  as  models  of  felicitous  translation;  I  shall  quote 
two  [see  sections  1205  ff-  of  the  Grammar]  :  "  Transfi- 
gitur  scutum  Pulioni  "  — "  unfortuately  for  Pulio,  his 
shield  gets  pierced  through  and  through";  "At  tibi  re- 
pente,  cum  minime  exspectarem,  venit  ad  me  Caninius 
mane  "  —  "  but  bless  you,  sir,  when  I  least  dreamt  of  it, 
who  should  drop  in  on  me  all  at  once  but  Caninius, 
bright  and  early  !  "  So,  too,  in  expressions  like  "  pace 
tua "  ["  by  your  leave "]  and  "  Quern  honoris  causa 
nomino  "  ["  whom  I  mention  with  all  due  respect  "]  the 
chances  for  the  monstrosity  called  "  translation  English  " 
are  so  admirable  that  they  are  seldom  neglected.  These 
examples  will  suffice  to  show  how  constantly  a  faithful 
rendering  of  the  spirit  of  the  Latin  should  be  insisted 
upon.  The  long  periods  in  Cicero  are  also  excellently 
adapted  to  strengthening  the  pupil's  command  of 
English. 

Sallust's  "  Catiline  "  should,  of  course,  be  read  along 
with  the  "  Orations  against  Catiline  "  of  Cicero  —  if  not 
all  of  it,  at  least  a  large  part.  This  combination  of  Cicero 
and  Sallust  offers  excellent  material  for  work  in  English ; 
for  instance,  themes  on  any  of  these  topics : 

1.  The  style  of  Cicero  compared  with  that  of  Sallust. 

2.  A   comparison   of    Catiline   with   modern   political 
"  bosses." 

3.  Verres  —  what  would  he  have  done  in   Pennsyl- 
vania ? 

4.  The  style  of  Cicero  in  his  "  Letters  "  and  in  his 
11  Orations." 

92 


5.  Social  and  political  conditions  in  the  time  of  Cati- 
ne  and  Louis  XV,  of  France. 

6.  Julius  Caesar  as  drawn  by  Sallust. 

Attention  may  well  be  called  to  the  following  works 
f  English  authors  which  will  interest  the  student  of 
'icero : 

Beaumont  and  Fletcher:  "The  False  One." 
Croly :  "  Catiline." 
Dryden :  "All  for  Love." 
H.  W.  Herbert:  "  The  Roman  Traitor." 
Ben  Jonson :  "  Catiline." 

Walter  Savage  Landor :  "  Imaginary  conversation  be- 
ween  Cicero  and  his  brother  Quintus." 
J.  E.  Reade :  "  Catiline." 

CORRELATION  WITH  HISTORY 

The  study  of  Roman  History  is  often  begun  in  the 
bird  year;  and  the  importance  of  impressing  upon  the 
mpil  the  fact  that  lie  is  handling  original  sources  is 
bvious.  Students  should  by  all  means  be  encouraged, 
Iso,  to  form  their  own  judgments  on  men  and  events 
roni  first-hand  evidence.  From  the  works  of  Caesar, 
Cicero,  and  Sallust  they  may  well  study  a  fair  amount 
f  material  in  the  original;  and  translations  of  the  fol- 
Dwing  should,  whenever  possible,  be  accessible  for  refer- 
nce: 

Appian:  "Roman  History"  [XII  and  XIV]. 
Dio     Cassius:     "Roman     History"     [XXXVI     and 
CXXVII]. 

Florus:  "  Epitome  "  [III  and  IV]. 
Plutarch :  "  Lives  of  Caesar  and  Pompey." 
Suetonius :  "  Lives  of  Caesar  and  Augustus." 
Velleius  Paterculus,  book  II. 


93 


PART  1 1 

I  shall  next  consider  reading  for  wider  knowledge,  on 
the  principles  already  cited  in  Part  II  of  the  previous 
chapter.  One  of  the  excellent  readers  which  I  mentioned 
there  will  offer  suitable  material,  and  Sallust's  "  Catiline  " 
may  well  receive  more  than  a  cursory  study.  Or,  if 
the  teacher  prefers  to  place  the  whole  texts  of  one  or 
two  authors  in  the  hands  of  the  pupils  and  to  select 
extracts  from  these,  I  most  earnestly  recommend : 

I.     "  Scriptores  Historic  Augustae,"  edidit  H.  Peter  — 
2  vols.:  vol.  i  —  M.  3.30:  vol.  2 —  M.  4.20. 

The  "Augustan  Histories  "  reveal  the  inner  life  of  the 
emperors  from  Hadrian  to  Carinus  with  a  wealth  of 
fascinating  material.  And  it  is  most  desirable  that  stu- 
dents should  see  that  not  the  age  of  Cicero,  but  the  first 
three  centuries  after  Christ  are  most  relative  to  our  pres- 
ent age.  For  during  the  first  three  centuries  was  per- 
fected that  Roman  Law  which  taught  the  Western  world 
the  art  of  government ;  a  new  religion,  destined  to  destroy 
the  whole  fabric  of  the  old,  was  toiling  slowly  to  emi- 
nence; the  peoples  were  welded  into  a  homogeneous 
mass  under  one  system ;  and  the  Empire  in  its  death- 
throes  gave  birth  to  the  modern  European  nations.  This 
panorama  is  well  illustrated  in  the  ''Augustan  Histories." 
The  high-school  student  is,  of  course,  not  mature  enough 
to  grasp  every  passage;  but  selections  can  be  made  that 
are  at  once  highly  interesting  and  not  too  difficult.  I 
shall  append  a  few  from  the  "  Life  of  Alexander  Sev- 
erus,"  by  Lampridius : 

§  29 :  Matutinis  horis  in  larario  suo,  in  quo  et  divos 
principes  sed  optimos  electos  et  animas  sanctiores,  in  quis 
Apollonium  et,  quantum  scriptor  stiorum  temporum  (licit, 
Christum,  Abraham,  et  Orfenm  et  huiuscemodi  ceteros 
habebat  ac  maiorum  effigies,  rcm  divinam  faciebat. 

94 


§22:  ludaeis  privilegia  reservavit.  Christianos  esse- 
assus  est.  .  .  .  presides  provinciarum,  quos  vere  non 
ictionibus  laudari  comperit,  et  itineribus  secum  semper 
i  vehiculo  habuit  et  muneribus  adiuvit,  dicens  et  fures 

re  publica  pellendos  ac  pauperandos  et  integros  esse 
^tinendos  atque  ditandos. 

II.  "  Valerii  Maximi  Factorum  et  Dictorum  Memora- 
iliuni  libri  novem,"  recensuit  Carolus  Kempf .  —  Teub- 
er,  Leipsig — M.  4.50. 

E.g. — [II,  6,  10  et  sqq.]  :  Horum  [i.e.  Massiliensium] 
loenia  egressis  vetus  ille  mos  Gallorum  occurrit,  quos 
lemoria  proditum  est  pecunias  mtttnas,  quae  his  apud 
iferos  redderentur,  dare,  quia  persuasum  habuerint  ani- 
las  hominum  immortales  esse.  Dicerem  sttjiltos,  nisi 
lem  bracati  sensissent,  quod  palliatus  Pythagoras  credi- 
it. 

Avara  et  feneratoria  Gallorum  philosophia,  alacris  et 
Drtis  Cimbrorum  et  Celtiberorum.  qtii  in  acie  gaudio  ex- 
Itabant  tamquam  gloriose  et  f eliciter  vita  excessuri ;  la- 
icntabantur  in  morbo,  quasi  turpiter  et  miserabiliter 
erituri.  Celtiberi  etiam  nefas  esse  ducebant  proelio 
uperesse,  cum  is  occidisset,  pro  cuius  salute  spiritum 
evcrverarit. 

[VIII-7,  2]  :  Pythagoras.  .-  .  .  ^gyptum  petiit, 
bi,  litteris  gentis  eius  adsuefactus,  prseteriti  sevi  sacerdo- 
im  commentarios  scrutatus,  innumerabilium  sseculorum 
bservationes  cogriovit.  inde  ad  Persas  profectus  mago- 
Ltm  exactissimaj  prudentiae  se  formandum  tradidit,  a  qui- 
us  sidernm  motus  cursusque  stellarum  et  unius  cuiusque 
im,  proprietatem,  effectum  benignissime  demonstratum 
ocili  animo  sorpsit.  Cretam  deinde  et  Lacedsemona 
avigavit,  quarum  legibus  ac  moribus  inspectis  ad  Olym- 
icum  certamen  descendit. 

III.  "  Latin  Hymns.     With  English  Notes  and  brief 
Notices  of  the  Authors,"  by  F.  A.  March.   Harpers,  New 
fork. 

95 


A  perusal  of  the  great  Latin  hymns  cannot  fail  to  be 
of  value  to  the  student.  He  will  find  in  them  the  real 
poetry  —  accentual,  often  rhymed  —  that  we  know  to 
have  belonged  to  the  common  people  of  Rome  from  the 
very  earliest  times.  The  pupil  should  know  that  all  the 
subjects  of  Rome  did  not  find  the  prosody  of  Vergil 
a  thing  of  native  growth.  "  They  (the  Hymns)  are  the 
true  Latin  folk-poems,"  remarks  Professor  March,  "  they 
have  been  called  '  the  Bible  of  the  people.'  They  are 
a  valuable  study  also  from  the  biographical,  historical, 
and  literary  matter  that  comes  up  in  reading  them.  The 
authors  are  many  of  them  the  heroes  of  their  generation, 
kings  in  the  realm  of  thought  or  action.  Interesting 
events  are  connected  with  their  composition  or  history, 
and  they  are  full  of  allusions  to  the  great  works  of  the 
older  period,  the  Bible  and  the  fathers  of  the  Church. 
There  is  great  variety  in  the  subjects,  the  metres,  and 
the  style  of  the  hymns."  .  .  .  "  By  a  careful  study 
of  their  words,  we  are  enabled  rapidly  to  think  their 
(the  authors')  thoughts,  to  repeat  in  our  experience  their 
aspirations  and  resolves,  and  to  recognize  and  accept  their 
ideals."  / 

The  grandeur  of  the  organ-notes,  so  to  speak,  of 

Dies  ine,  dies  ilia 
Solvet  saeclum  in   favilla 
Teste  David  cum  Sybilla 

and  the 

Stabat  mater  dolorosa 
luxta  crucem  lacrymosa, 
Dum  pendebat  fijius, 

will  appeal  to  the  student's  mind  with  as  much  power  as 
the 

Parcere  subiectis  et  debellare  superbos 


UNIVERSITY    I 

OF 


f  Vergil;  and  a  comparison  of  the  majesty  of  the  Man- 
.ian  and  of  the  Christian  monk  will  open  a  wider  ho- 
izon,  a  deeper  insight  into  the  realms  of  the  inner 
pirit  of  man. 


CHAPTER  VII 

Fourth  Year  of  Latin 

PART  I 

I  shall  assume  that  Vergil  is  our  author  for  intensive 
tucly  during  the  fourth  year.  As  Caesar  introduces  us 
o  the  external  government  and  policy  of  Rome,  and 
"icero  to  its  inner  social  and  political  life,  so  Vergil 
hall  be  our  guide  to  an  appreciation  of  the  thoughts 
.nd  ideals  of  the  Romans  —  nobly  sung  in  yEneid  VI, 


Tu  regere  imperio  populos,  Romane,  memento  ; 
Hae  tibi  erunt  artes  ;  pacisque  imponere  morem, 
Parcere  subiectis,  et  debellare  superbos. 

In  our  secondary  schools  the  reading  of  Vergil  is  con- 
ined  practically  exclusively  to  the  "yEneid  "  —  the  first 
ix  books  and,  if  time  allows,  as  much  of  the  other  six 
is  can  be  read  in  the  space  allotted. 

For  the  professional  student  of  literature  it  is  undoubt- 
edly necessary  to  read  the  whole  of  the  "  /Eneid  "  ;  and 
he  brilliant  works  of  Conington,  Sellar,  and  Nettleship 
m  Vergil  will  open  to  one  who  studies  them  carefully 
he  subtle  beauties  of  the  poet  in  their  full  dramatic  or 
irtistic  perfection.  But  we  are  dealing  with  boys  and 
'iris  of  seventeen  and  eighteen  years  of  age,  many  of 
vhom  (the  majority,  rather)  will  carry  the  study  of 
^atin  no  further  than  the  high-school  course.  They  have 
low  arrived  at  a  stage  when  grammar  should  have  been 
nastered  and  when  an  effort  should  be  made  to  have 

97 


them  appreciate  Latin  Literature  as  literature,  not  as  a 
text  for  syntax  or  composition.  Vergil  is  the  supreme 
artist  of  Latin  verse;  but  he  is  also  the  most  difficult  to 
grasp;  the  beauties  of  no  poet  are  more  elusive,  more 
subtle.  In  teaching  Vergil,  therefore,  we  must  be  on  our 
guard  to  prevent  the  subject  from  becoming  irksome  or 
a  bore;  we  shall  do  well  to  realize  what  parts  of  our 
author  are  suited  to  adolescents  and  what  parts  are 
beyond  their  immature  years ;  and  I  propose  next  to 
discuss  certain  aspects  of  this  matter  with  a  view  to 
ascertain  what  course  of  reading  shall  be  best  adapted 
to  the  fourth-year  pupil. 

Adolescence  is  the  period  of  romance ;  a  time  when 
romantic  love  appeals  most  strongly.  It  is  fond  of  ad- 
venture and  action.  It  is  idealistic,  and  enjoys  prose 
or  poetry  of  lofty  sentiment.  Problems  of  practical 
ethics  win  its  attention.  It  is  .an  age  of  frankness,  too, 
and  much  opposed  to  artificiality  or  tame  submittance  to 
convention. 

The  adolescent  is  attracted  by  romance,  as  I  have  said ; 
and  the  history  of  Dido,  as  depicted  in  so  masterly  a 
way  in  the  fourth  book  of  the  "/Eneid,"  seldom  fails 
to  win  the  sympathy  and  attention  of  the  secondary  stu- 
dent. 

The  adolescent  is  fond  of  adventure  and  action;  then 
the  first  three  books  of  the  4''y£neid,"  so  vivid,  full  of  life, 
pregnant  with  reminiscences  of  the  "  tale  of  Troy  divine," 
seem  well -fitted  to  cater  to  this  side  of  youth. 

The  adolescent  is  idealistic;  and  nowhere  will  he  find 
loftier  ethics,  sublimer  sentiments,  than  in  the  idealiza- 
tion of  Rome  and  her  destiny  as  conceived  in  the  sixth 
book  of  the  "^Eneid."  The  harmony  and  vigor  of  verses 
such  as  these: 

Tu  ne  cede  maHs,  sed  contra  audentior  ito, 
or 

Tros  Anchisiade,  facilis  descensus  Averno; 
Noctes  atque  dies  patet  atri  ianua  Ditis; 


Sed  revocafe  gradum  superasque  evadere  ad  auras, 
Hoc  opus,  hie  labor  est. 
>r 

Discite  iustitiam  moniti,  et  non  temnere  clivos 

re  well  adapted  to  minister  to  the  serise  of   idealism 
iherent  in  the  adolescent. 

Books  I-IV  and  Book  VI  of  the  "  JEneid  "  I  should 
onsider  excellent  to  present  in  the  fourth  year  of  Latin. 
>efpre  considering  the  question  of  the  other  parts,  let 
ic  quote  the  best  summary  of  Vergil's  place  as  poet 
lat  can  be  found  anywhere;  I  mean  the  criticism  of 
lackail  ["  Latin  Literature,"  p.  98  and  following]  :  "  Up 
>  the  beginning  of  the  present  century  the  supremacy 
f  Virgil  was  hardly  doubted.  Since  then  the  develop- 
icnt  of  scientific  criticism  has  passed  him  through  all 
s  searching  processes,  and  in  a  fair  judgment  his  great- 
ess  has  rather  gained  than  lost.  The  doubtful  honor 
f  indiscriminate  praise  was  for  a  brief  period  succeeded 
y  the  attacks  of  an  almost  equally  undiscriminating  cen- 
ure.  An  ill-judged  partiality  had  once  spoken  of  the 
Eneid  as  something  greater  than  a  Roman  Iliad ;  it  was 
asy  to  show  that  in  the  most  remarkable  Homeric  quali- 
es  the  ^Eneid  fell  far  short,  and  that,  so  far  as  it  was 
n  imitation  of  Homer,  it  could  no  more  stand  beside 
[omer  than  the  imitations  of  Theocritus  in  the  Eclogues 
Diild  stand  beside  Theocritus.  .  .  .  No  great  work 
f  art  can  be  usefully  judged  by  comparison  with  any 
ther  great  work  of  art  .  .  .  and  to  depreciate  one 
ecause  it  has  not  what  is  the  special  quality  of  the  other, 
.  to  lose  sight  of  the  function  of  criticism.  .  .  .  The 
lost  adverse  critic  would  not  deny  that  portions  of  the 
oem  are,  both  in  dramatic  and  narrative  qualty,  all  but 
nsurpassed,  and  in  a  certain  union  of  imaginative  sym- 
athy  with  their  fine  dramatic  power  and  their  state- 
ness of  narration  perhaps  unequalled.  .  .  .  That  the 
ineid  is  unequal,  is  true;  that  passages  in  it  here 

99 


and  there  are  mannered,  and  even  flat,  is  true  also.  .  .  . 
Vergil  may  seem  to  us  to  miss  some  of  his  opportunities, 
to  labor  others  beyond  their  due  proportion,  and  to  force 
himself  (especially  in  the  later  books)  into  material  not 
well  adapted  to  the  distinctive  Vergilian  treatment.  .  .  . 
The  funeral  games  at  the  tomb  of  Anchises,  no  longer 
described,  as  they  had  been  in  early  Greek  poetry,  from 
a  real  pleasure  in  dwelling  upon  their  details,  begin  to 
become  tedious  before  they  are  over.  In  the  battle- 
pieces  of  the  last  three  books  we  sometimes  cannot  help 
being  reminded  that  Vergil  is  rather  wearily  following 
an  absolescent  literary  tradition." 

Vergil  may,  then,  be  confessedly  flat  and  stale  for  the 
mature  reader  at  times;  doubly  so  in  that  case  for 
younger  readers.  Now,  it  is  in  Book  V  and  in  the  last 
six  books  of  the  "  JEneid  "  that  Vergil  is  simply  follow- 
ing obsolete  literary  tradition  or  copying,  sometimes  word 
for  word,  Greek  originals.  The  "  distinctive  Vergilian 
treatment  "  has  no  longer  adequate  material  on  which 
to  be  exercised.  He  has  funeral  games  for  Anchises 
because  Homer  depicts  those  for  Patroclus ;  but  he  can- 
not bring  into  the  subject  that  joy  in  life,  the  zest  for 
sport,  which  characterizes  the  description  of  Homer; 
and  naturally,  because  Vergil  lived  in  a  far  more  ad- 
vanced civilization.  Again,  Vergil  describes  the  shield 
of  ^Eneas,  because  Homer  did  the  same  for  the  shield 
of  Achilles;  but  Homer  describes  through  action,  he 
puts  us  through  the.  process  of  its  manufacture,  and  the 
interest  never  flags.  In  the  "  yEneid  "  we  get  simply  a 
heap  of  dreary  details. 

Again,  the  whole  machinery  of  gods  and  goddesses 
is  dragged  in  by  the  heels  in  Book  V  and  Books  VII-XII ; 
and  whereas  in  Homer  the  mythology  is  so  natural,  be- 
cause we  feel  that  the  poet  believed  in  it  sincerely,  in  the 
"  /Eneid  "  we  are  not  deceived ;  we  know  at  once  that 
the  poet  did  not  have  faith  in  the  credo  of  the  general. 

100 


We  live  to-day,  moreover,  in  an  age  to  which  the 
great  epics  like  "  Paradise  Lost "  are  not  attractive. 
The  whole  setting  is  incredible,  unreal;  such  things  as 
are  described  cannot  occur  and  never  did  take  place ; 
the  conception  is  alien  to  our  ways  of  thought.  It  is 
3nly  when  the  epic  drops  its  artificial  supernumeraries 
and  concerns  itself  with  men  and  women  of  real  life 
that  it  may  become  great;  for  this  reason  Books  VI 
and  XXII  of  the  "  Iliad  "  will  delight  to  the  end  of 
time.  For  this  reason  the  "  Iliad "  will  have  more 
readers  than  "  Paradise  Lost,"  in  which  only  the  ma- 
jestic and/ sonorous  music  can  stir  our  emotions;  of 
men  and  women  with  senses,  affections,  and  passions 
kin  to  us,  there  are  none ;  but  what  a  galaxy  does  Homer 
present !  —  Andromache,  Nausicaa,  Penelope,  Hector, 
Helen,  Paris  — the  "Odyssey"  and  the  "Iliad"  are 
filled  with  creatures  of  flesh  and  blood. 

My  conclusion  is,  therefore,  that  of  the  "  y£neid " 
only  Books  I  to  IV  and  Book  VI  should  be  presented 
in  secondary  schools.  By  the  careful  study  of  these  the 
student  will  have  had  the  opportunity  to  grasp  the  real 
greatness  of  Vergil  —  his  perfect  mastery  of  metre,  his 
sublimity,  his  marvelous  power  in  delineating  sympa- 
thetically the  love  of  woman,  his  lofty  idealization  of 
Rome  —  without  becoming  intimately  acquainted  with 
his  worst  faults  —  artificiality  and  imitation  of  obsolete 
traditions  of  epic  machinery. 

There  are,  indeed,  passages  in  the  last  six  books  which 
are  equal  in  interest  and  merit  to  anything  in  the  first 
four  —  the  story  of  Nisus  and  Euryalus,  for  example  — 
but  I  think  it  a  bad  mistake  to  push  the  reading  of  an 
author  to  the  point  of  saturation,  until  he  becomes  mo- 
notonous and  a  bore.  Moreover,  as  before  remarked, 
we  do  not  read  "  Paradise  Lost "  without  some  con- 
sideration of  "  Lycidas  " ;  and  after  the  "  yEneid  "  it  is 
only  fair  to  exhibit  our  poet  in  another  aspect  by  turn- 
ing to  the  "  Eclogues." 

101 


Some  teachers  object  to  the  "  Eclogues "  on  the 
ground  that  the  vocabulary  is  too  difficult,  the  allusions 
many  and  hard,  the  whole  subject-matter  unattractive  to 
a  boy  or  girl;  and  that  they  are  merely  artificial  imi- 
tations of  Theocritus,  after  allA  To  be  sure,  Vergil"/ 
is  an  imitator ;  but,  as  Voltaire  remarked,  "  Homere  a 
fait  Virgile,  dit-on;  si  cela  est,  c'est  sans  doute  son  plus  I 
bel  ouvrage."  In  the  "  Eclogues  "  Vergil  has  known 
how  to  blend  the  spirit  of  his  originals  with  his  own 
genius;  and  since,  furthermore,  not  more  than  one  pupil 
in  ten  thousand  will  ever  read  the  "  Idyls  "  of  Theocri- 
tus, the  fact  that  the  "  Eclogues "  are  imitated  from 
him  will  hardly  trouble  their  serenity.  As  to  subject- 
matter,  experience  shows  that  boys  and  girls. like  it;  as, 
indeed,  why  should  they  not?  Life  in  the  open,  the  joy 
of  living,  birds  and  flowers,  are  their  natural  elements. 
The  allusions  can  surely  be  explained  very  easily  by  the 
teacher;  and  care  should  be  taken  not  to  force  the  stu- 
dents to  remember  each  detail.  Nor  is  the  vocabulary 
too  difficult;  unusual  words  like  bacchar  and  colocasia 
do  certainly  occur;  but  the  pupils  need  not  be  required 
to  learn  them.  The  music  of  these  poems  is  not  their 
least  cham;  the  limpid  flow  of  verses  like 

Sicelides  Musae,  paulo  maiora  canamus ! 
has   frequently  been  of  great  potency  in  leading  to  an 
appreciation  of  the  hexameter  that  was  not  so  keenly 
felt  while  reading  the  "  ^Eneid." 

I  do,  indeed,  believe  that  some  of  the  "  Eclogues  " 
are  hardly  mrginibus  puerisque;  the  second,  for  instance, 
is  beyond  their  range.  But  "  Eclogues "  IV  and  IX 
I  consider  well  adapted  to  pupils  in  the  fourth  year  of 
Latin.  The  study  of  number  IV  has  had  sucfi  a  peculiar 
historical  interest  from  the  earliest  times,  that  it  is 
especially  fitted  to  be  presented ;  and  the  story  of  Vergil 
as  a  magician  and  prophet  during  the  Middle  Ages,  and 

A  Some  of  these  arguments  are,  indeed,  true  of  the  "  Geer- 
gics,"  which  are  too  difficult  for  students  in  secondary  schools. 


I O2 


the  extraordinary  relations  of  the  Sibyls  to  early 
iristianity,  will  not  fail  to  attract  the  attention  power- 
lly. 

DME  POINTS  TO  BE  CONSIDERED  IN  THE 
TEACHING  OF  VERGIL 

If  the  teacher  feels  that  the  sudden  transition  to 
>etry  will  prove  difficult  for  the  pupils  without  some 
ecial  help,  Mr.  C.  W.  Gleason's  "Gate  to  Vergil" 
}inn]  will  be  found  a  convenient  little  volume.  It 
ntains  Book  I  of  the  "  yEneid,"  together  with  a  prose 
rsion  in  Latin,  and  very  helpful  aids  to  scansion.  A 
•cabulary  is  appended. 

In  regard  to  the  reading  of  Vergil,  perhaps  there  is  no 
:ed  of  particular  comment.  But  two  or  three  points 
em  to  me  worth  noting.  Students  are,  as  a  rule,  in- 
rmed  that  in  Latin  verse  words  may  change  their  ac- 
nt  completely;  cano,  for  example,  having  an  ictus  on 
i  last  syllable  —  cano  —  in  the  opening  line  of  the 
^neid,"  thus: 

Arma  virumque  cano,  Troiae  qui  primus  ab  oris 

lat  accent  in  any  language  should  exhibit  such  wide 
mergences  seems  strange;  and  the  matter  is,  indeed, 

alien  to  all  our  conceptions  that  it  appears  unreal, 
it  was  there  in  fact  such  differentiation  in  Latin  as 
s  been  commonly  supposed  ?  Let  me  refer  the  teacher 

pages  175-190  of  Bennett  and  Bristol's  "  The  Teach- 
%  of  Latin  and  Greek "  [Longmans,  Green  &  Co.] 
r  an  illuminating  discussion  of  this  subject.  Not  to 
*ary  the  reader  by  a  tedious  commentary,  I  shall  quote 
•of  essor  Bennett's  summary :  "  Latin  poetry  is  to  be 
ad  exactly  like  Latin  prose.  Latin  was  primarily  a 
antitative  language  in  the  classical  period  and  is  to 
read  quantitatively.  The  Latin  word-accent  was 
latively  slight  as  compared  with  that  of  our  strongly 

103 


stressed  English  speech,  and  is  therefore  to  be  carefully 
subordinated  to  quantity  both  in  prose  and  poetry. 
Ictus  was  not  a  metrical  term  current  among  the  Ro- 
mans, nor  was  there  anything  corresponding  to  it  in 
the  quantitative  poetry  of  the  Greeks.  The  term  is 
purely  modern.  We  first  imported  the  conception  of 
stress  from  our  modern  speech  into  the  quantitative 
poetry  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  and  then  imported 
the  term  '  ictus  '  to  cover  it.  But  just  as  the  conception 
of  artificial  stress  in  Latin  poetry  is  false,  so  the  term 
'  ictus  '  is  superfluous.  ®e<m  was  employed  by  the 
ancient  Greek  writers  on  metric  to  designate  the  promi- 
nent part  of  every  fundamental  foot,  and  is.  still  en- 
tirely adequate  to  cover  that  conception.  ...  In 
actual  reading  it  will  be  well  to  bear  in  mind  the  four 
following  fundamental  principles : 

1.  Observe  the  quantity  of  each  syllable  scrupulously, 
taking  care  to  observe  the  proper  division  of  the  sylla- 
bles, joining  the  first  of  two  successive  consonants  with 
the  preceding  vowel,  and  so  closing  the  syllable. 

2.  Make  the  word-accent  light ;  subordinate  it  care- 
fully to  quantity. 

3.  Endeavor  to  cultivate  the  quantitative  sense,  i.e., 
to  feel  the  verse  as  consisting  of  a  succession  of  long 
and  short  intervals. 

4.  Do  not  attempt  to  give  special  expression  to  the 
'  ictus  '  in  any  way.     The  '  ictus  '  (which  is  only  quanti- 
tative prominence)  will  take  care  of  itself,  if  the  sylla- 
bles are  properly  pronounced." 

Professor  Lane  remarks  in  his  Grammar  [§2548]  : 
"  Although  in  all  probability  the  Latin  accent  was  mainly 
one  of  stress  rather  than  of  pitch,  it  seems  to  have  been 
comparatively  weak.  Hence,  when  it  conflicted  with 
the  metrical  ictus,  it  could  be  the  more  easily  disregarded 
But  accentual  or  semi-accentual  poetry  seems  to  have 
existed  among  the  common  people  even  in  the  Augustan 
age,  and  even  in  classical  Latin  verse  in  certain  cases 

104 


s  in  the  last  part  of  the  dactylic  hexameter)  conflict 
tween  ictus  and  accent  was  carefully  avoided.  After 
e  third  century  A.  D.  the  accent  exerted  a  stronger 
d  stronger  influence  upon  versification,  until  in  the 
iddle  Ages  the  quantitative  Latin  verse  was  quite  sup- 
mted  by  the  accentual." 

It  is  certainly  a  great  help  to  pupils  who  are  just  be- 
ining  to  scan  to  accent  the  first  syllable  very  strongly ; 
d  perhaps  it  is  well  to  allow  a  strong  ictus  at  first, 
til  the  student  becomes  more  accustomed  to  the  metre, 
fter  that  it  will  be  in  order  to  render  the  hexameter 
as  classical  a  way  as  possible.  The  melodious  verse 
Vergil  does,  in  fact,  read  itself,  so  to  speak,  mar- 
lously  well;  and  pupils  seldom  find  it  very  difficult. 
t  any  rate,  the  students  should  not  be  burdened  with 
ng  and  elaborate  rules  of  quantity,  each  attended  by 
train  of  numerous  exceptions ;  they  are  quite  unneces- 
ry;  and  the  three  or  four  brief  principles  which  ex- 
ain  when  a  vowel  is  long,  short,  or  common  —  prin- 
}les  clearly  stated  in  all  First  Latin  Books  —  are  quite 
icugh  for  the  purpose. 

Mythology,  as  we  meet  it  in  Vergil,  may  be  made 
•ofitable  and  entertaining  to  the  student.  It  is  idle 
load  the  pupil  with  details  of  unimportant  names  or 
•isodes ;  for  instance,  there  is  no  particular  point  in 
quiring  him  to  remember  who  Polydorus  was.  But 
ose  features  of  myth  and  fable  which  have  become 
•eminent  in  art,  literature,  and  the  study  of  race  his- 
ry  are  well  worth  attention. 

I.  The  "  ./Eneid "  offers  some  good  material  for 
ithropological  and  historical  study.  "  Myth  is  actual 
story  of  early  and  imperfect  stages  of  thought  and 
;lief,"  remarks  Professor  Gayley,  "  it  is  the  true  nar- 
.tive  of  unenlightened  observation,  of  infantine  grop- 
gs  after  truth.  Whatever  reservations  scholars  may 
ake  on  other  points,  most  of  them  will  concur  in  these : 
lat  some  myths  came  into  existence  by  a  '  disease  of 

105 


language';  that  some  were  invented  to  explain  names 
of  nations  and  of  places,  and  some  to  explain  the  ex- 
istence of  fossils  and  bones  that  suggested  prehistoric 
animals  and  men;  that  many  were  invented  to  gratify 
the  ancestral  pride  of  chieftains  and  clans,  and  that 
very  many  obtained  consistency  and  form  as  explana- 
tions of  the  phenomena  of  nature,  as  expressions  of 
the  reverence  felt  for  the  powers  of  nature,  and  as 
personifications,  in  general,  of  the  passions  and  the  ideals 
of  primitive  mankind."  Scylla,  the  personification  of 
rocks  dangerous  to  the  mariner;  Charybdis,  the  whirl- 
pool ;  the  Harpies,  personifications,  of  the  storm-winds ; 
Enceladus  under  /Etna,  the  volcano  myth ;  these  are  a 
few  of  the  fables  mentioned  by  Vergil  which  will  repay 
study  in  the  light  of  Professor  Gayley's  remarks.  The 
whole  "  y^Eneid,"  furthermore,  was  distinctly  "  invented 
to  gratify  the  ancestral  pride "  of  Augustus  and  the 
Julian  clan  and  to  justify  the  ways  of  Rome  to  men. 
The  historical  background  of  the  stories  which  center 
about  Troy  arouses  eager  curiosity  when  connected  with 
the  epoch-making  excavations  of  Dr.  Schliemann  at  His- 
sarlik  (site  of  ancient  Troy)  and  at  Mycenae;  and  no 
less  interesting  will  be  a  brief  mention  of  Elissa,  the 
foundress  of  Carthage,  who  later  became  confused  with 
Dido-Astarte,  the  protectress  of  the  colony. 

Religious  rites  and  customs  will  properly  receive  some 
attention  in  connection  with  the  study  of  mythology ; 
for  example,  the  calling  to  the  dead  [III,  68],  libations 
before  the  feast  [I,  736],  offerings  to  departed  spirits 

[III,  301-305]- 

Any  myth  that  has  had  an  influence  on  later  history 
should  always  receive  explanation,  however  brief ;  for 
so  the  past  is  brought  more  vividly  in  connection  with 
the  present.  The  mention  of  the  Sibyls  [III,  440,  VI, 
98]  recalls  at  once  their  whole  interesting  position,  from 
the.  legend  of  the  Sibyl  who  came  to  Tarquin  through 
the  centuries  when  the  Christians  adopted  them  as  in- 

106 


ired  prophetesses  of  the  triumph  of  Christianity.  The 
e  of  the  "  Sortes  Vergilianae "  up  to  comparatively 
xlern  times  presents  a  curious  example  of  lasting 
perstition;  and  the  pupil  should  be  told  how  Charles  I 

England,  on  consulting  the  "  Sortes  Vergilianse  "  at 
cford,  turned  by  chance  to  "  yEneid  "  IV,  615-620,  the 
rse  of  Dido,  which  was  so  strangely  fulfilled  in  his  own 
se. 

It  is  worth  while  to  inform  the  students  that  all 
>mans  and  Greeks  did  not  accept  literally  the  various 
rths  and  fables  any  more  than  we  do;  for  people  in 
neral  have  very  peculiar  ideas  on  the  matter  and  are 
mly  convinced  that  pagan  Rome  was  sunk  in  abysses 

blind  heathenism  and  immorality.  Such  notions 
ould  be  corrected,  as  far  as  possible,  in  secondary 
lools;  or  better,  they  should  never  be  conceived.  The 
irch  of  Plato  and  Aristotle  after  God ;  the  attempt  of 
ihemerus  [316  B.C.]  to  give  a  natural  and  historical 
planation  to  myths ;  the  allegorical  interpretations 
/en  even  by  the  ancients  to  stories  such  as  that  of 
ipid  and  Psyche;  how  the  Eleusinian  Mysteries  min- 
ered  to  men's  craving  for  higher  spiritual  truths,  and 
argil's  own  initiation  into  them ;  these  are  a  few  of 
3  topics  that  may  be  presented,  even  if  only  summarily, 

the  student  of  the  "  JEneicf." 
II.     The  vast  extent  of  the  use  of  classical  mythology 

literature  justifies  a  careful  consideration  of  it;  the 
)re  so,  as  Milton,  Tennyson,  and  Shakespeare,  among 
icr  writers  who  allude  freely  to  myth,  are  regularly 
idied  in  the  English  course.  When  Hecate  is  men- 
•ned  in  "Macbeth";  Dido  in  "The  Merchant  of 
mice  " ;  when  Milton,  in  "  Comus,"  speaks  of  "  Triton's 
nding  shell";  the  student  should  not  be  ignorant  of 
*  very  general  use  of  classic  myths  in  English  litera- 
re;  and  he  should  acquire  a  reasonably  accurate  idea 

their  sources. 

107 


III.  No  less  profitable  is  it,  to  contemplate  the  classi- 
cal mythology  with  reference  to  its  enormous  influence 
upon  art.  With  the  most  common  masterpieces  of 
ancient  sculpture  —  such  as  the  Apollo  Belvedere,  and 
the  Venus  of  Melos  —  most  students  are  familiar.  They 
should  also  acquire  some  outline  knowledge  of  the  myths 
and  stones  treated  by  the  great  painters  and  sculptors  of 
later  ages;  as,  for  instance,  Guido  Reni's  "Aurora,"  Rem- 
brandt's u  Ganymede  carried  off  by  Jove's  Eagle,"  Mi- 
chael Angelo's  '''The  Fates  "'  (also  Paul  Thumann's), 
Thorwaldsen's  "  Hector  and  Andromache."  It  will  do  no 
harm  for  the  teacher  to  point  out  that  the  famous  Laocoori 
group  inspired  Lessing's  "  Laocoon,"  one  of  the  great- 
est criticisms  of  art  ever  written ;  and  a  brief  summary  of 
this  masterpiece,  adapted  to  the  pupil's  comprehension,  is 
a  stimulant  of  a  high  order  of  merit  to  instil  some  ap- 
preciation of  the  principles  underlying  the  beauty  of 
classic  sculpture. 

Prints  of  all  the  masterpieces  of  sculpture  and  paint- 
ing are  easily  gotten  and  are  very  cheap ;  they  should  be 
in  the  hands  of  the  pupils,  or  at  least  be  on  the  desk  or 
hung  on  the  wall.  The  Perry  Prints  are  excellent 
[The  Perry  Pictures  Co.,  76  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York; 
Maiden,  Mass.]  ;  as  are  also  the  Harper's  Black  and 
White  Prints  [  H  elman-Taylor  Art  Co.,  257  Fifth 
Avenue,  New  York] .  Plaster  casts  may  be  had  of  P.  P. 
Caproni  and  Bro.,  1914  Washington  Street,  Boston. 

The  very  best  work  on  mythology  in  its  historical, 
literary,  and  artistic  relations  is  Gayley's  "  Classic  Myths 
in  English  Literature"  [Ginn  and  Co.].  In  this  work 
not  only  are  there  interesting  and  well-written  accounts 
of  each  myth,  but  also  copious  extracts  of  and  references 
to  all  English  writers  who  have  alluded  to  any  of  these ; 
a  list  of  artists  and  sculptors,  both  ancient  and  modern, 
who  have  treated  any  myth,  is  appended  to  the  several 
accounts ;  and  an  interpretation  or  scientific  explanation 
accompanies  all. 

108 


How  far  can  Vergil  be  treated  from  the  literary  point 
view,  or  correlated  with  English  in  secondary  schools  ? 
ic  high-school  student  cannot  be  expected  to  read  the 
isterly  and  extensive  critical  works  of  Nettleship, 
liar,  and  Conington ;  but  Mackail's  remarkable  little 
^atin  Literature  "  should  certainly  be  on  the  desk ;  and 
2  short  chapter  on  Vergil  ought  to  be  prescribed  for 
students  to  read  carefully.  The  beauties  of  Vergil, 
ably  summarized  by  Mackail  —  "  his  haunting  and 
uid  rhythms,  his  majestic  sadness,  his  grace  and  pity  " 
these  should  be  noted  by  the  teacher  and  pointed  out 
the  students  as  they  occur  in  the  several  verses.  Boys 
d  girls  are  quite  capable  of  appreciating  the  "  grace 
d  pity  "  of 

Sunt  lacrimae  rerum  et  mentem  mortalia  tangunt 

—  ^Eneid  I,  462. 
e  nobleness  of 

Non  ignara  mali  miseris  succurrere  disco 

—  y£neid  I,  630. 
e  quiet  beauty  of 

qua  se 
Plena  per  insertas  fundebat  luna  fenestras 

§-y£neid  III,  151-152. 
powerful  help  to  appreciation ; 
5  all  its  beauties  only  after  re- 

:ated  reading,  after  the  mind  is  ^saturated  with  its 
ought  and  language.  Any  one  who  is  familiar  with 
lakespeare  knows  how  true  this  is.-  NSo  less  than  two 
indred  lines  of  Vergil  should  be  assigneo*to  pupils  to 
mmit  to  memory  and  recite. 

Careful  translation  from  Latin  into  English  is  a 
•tent  aid  not  only  to  a  better  appreciation  of  the  Latin, 
it  also  to  enlargement  of  vocabulary  and  feeling  for 
e  power  of  words  in  English.  Teachers  are  very  care- 
ss and  allow  pupils  to  give  renderings  which  are  in 
)  sense  equivalents  of  the  Latin.  For  example :  to 

109 


render  "  sonipes  "  [" /EnM"  IV,  135]  by  the  prosaic 
"  horse  "  is  to  miss  the  force  of  the  original.  "  Sonipes  " 
is  a  purely  poetical  word,  found  only  in  verse  [e.g., 
Catullus,  63,  41;  Silius  Italicus,  I,  222;  Valerius  Flaccus, 
3,  334;  etc.].  Just  as  in  English  we  have  "horse," 
"steed,"  "charger,"  "nag,"  so  did  the  Romans  use 
"  equus,  caballus,  sonipes."  according  as  they  wished  to 
use  a  refined,  a  colloquial,  or  a  poetical  word.  Now, 
"  equus  "  is  equivalent  to  our  "  horse  " ;  "  caballus  " 
[It.  caballo,  Fr.  cheval]  was  a  very  colloquial  word  and 
can  perhaps  be  best  rendered  by  "  nag."  "  Sonipes  " 
["  noisy-footed,"  "  prancer  "]  can,  therefore,  be  trans- 
lated best  by  "  steed  " ;  and  the  use  of  such  words  in 
English  poetry  should  be  explained  to  the  students.  To 
take  another  instance :  "  genitor  "  =  "  sire  " ;  it  is  poeti- 
cal, and  ought  not  be  rendered  by  "  father,"  a  more 
colloquial  word,  the  equivalent  of  which  is  "  pater." 
"  Ensis,"  again,  is  a  purely  poetical  word,  like  our 
"  glaive  " ;  the  prose  word  is  "  gladius,"  our  "  sword." 
These  examples  will  suffice  to  give  an  idea  of  the  care 
that  needs  to  be  exercised  in  order  to  translate  Vergil 
faithfully,  in  accordance  with  the  spirit  of  the  original. 
I  believe  firmly  that  pupils,  after  they  have  worked 
out  carefully  one  or  two  books  of  the  "  yEneid,"  should 
be  allowed  and  encouraged  to  use  and  compare  the  best 
English  translations,  both  in  prose  and  verse.  Of  the 
making  of  such  translations  there  seems  to  be  no  end; 
new  ones  appear  constantly.  However,  it  seems  to  me 
that  the  prose  rendering  of  Conington,  and  the  metrical 
versions  of  Dryden,  Rhoades,  Conington,  and  Williams 
are  the  best  to  recommend  to  the  students.  It  is  profit- 
able, and  conduces  to  a  better  appreciation  of  the  real 
significance  of  the  Latin,  if  the  teacher  selects  some 
passage  and  has  the  various  versions  of  it  by  different 
translators  put  on  the  board ;  a  comparison  is  thus  easily 
made;  and  the  pupils  should  be  encouraged  to  find  out 
for  themselves  wherein  the  English  versions  are  faithful 

no 


the  exact  force  of  the  original,  and  where  they  are 
iply  paraphrases  or  miss  the  concrete  power  of  the 
tin  word.  Let  us  consider  verses  301-317  of  the 
ond  book  of  the  "  ^Eneid,"  as  an  illustration  or  practi- 

application  of  the  method  described  above: 
[.     Excutior    somno    [302]  :    "  I    woke    on    sudden " 
Williams]  ;  "  I  start  from  sleep  "  [Rhoades]  ;  "  I  start 

from  sleep  "  [Conington].  None  of  these  renderings 
adequate.  "  Excutio  "  means  literally  "  to  shake 
:  " ;  a  vivid  word ;  and  "  excutior  somno  "  should  be 
nslated  "  I  am  shaken  out  of  sleep  "  —  surely  a  most . 
)ropriate  expression,  when  we  reflect  that  all  Troy 
s  being  destroyed,  that  hosts  of  heavily-mailed  sol- 
rs  were  rushing  through  the  streets,  and  that  great 
Idings  were  crashing  to  ruin  right  and  left.  Most 
chers  are  quite  content  to  permit  pupils  to  render 
s  "  I  get  up  "  -  O  Vergil,  how  art  thou  translated ! 

J.  lam  Deiphobi  dedit  ampla  ruinam 

Volcano  superante  domus,  iam  proxumus  a'rdet 
Ucalegon ;  Sigea  igni  f reta  lata  relucent. 

310-312. 

"  Deiphobus'  great  house 
Sunk  vanquished  in  the  fire.    Ucalegon's 
Hard  by  was  blazing,  while  the  waters  wide 
Around  Sigeum  gave  an  answering  glow." 

—  Williams. 

'  Thy  halls  already,  late  so  proud, 
Deiphobus,  to  fire  have  bowed : 
Ucalegon  has  caught  the  light : 
Sigeum's  waves  gleam  broad  and  bright."      » 
—  Conington  (metrical  version). 

'  Already  Deiphobus'  palace  has  fallen  with  a  mighty 
;rthrow  before  the  mastering  fire-god  —  already  his 
ghbor  Ucalegon  is  in  flames  — •  the  expanse  of  the 
^ean  sea  shines  again  with  the  blaze." 

—  Conington  (prose  version). 

in 


"  See  e'en  now 

The  house  of  Deiphobus  a  vast  ruin  yawns 
O'ertopped  by  Vulcan !  see  his  neighbour  too 
Ucalegon  in  flames !     Sigeum's  gulf 
Reflects  the  blaze  afar." 

—  Rhoades. 

"  Now  the  big  house  of  Deiphobus  went  to  ruin,  the 
fire  conquering  it,  now  the  neighboring  house  of 
Ucalegon  burns;  the  straits  of  Sigeum  far  and  wide 
shine  from  the  fire."  -  -  Usual  rendering  of  the  pupil. 

Of  these  translations,  that  of  Mr.  Rhoades  is  the  most 
faithful  to  the  real  meaning  of  Vergil's  words.  Note 
the  "  o'ertopped  by  Vulcan  " ;  that  is  what  the  poet  says. 
"  Supero  "  means  literally  "  to  surmount,"  "  to  climb 
over  " ;  the  use  of  "  Vulcan  "  for  "  fire  "  adds  vividness 
by  personifying  the  element,  by  making  the  agent  real. 
Literally  translated,  the  expression  is  one  of  great  beauty 
and  imagery ;  but  anything  like  "  sunk  vanquished  in  the 
fire  "  is  a  mere  paraphrase,  an  explanatory  comment,  not 
a  translation.  "  Ruina "  is  constantly  flattened  when 
rendered  into  English ;  it  means  "  a  downfall,"  "  a  tum- 
bling," not  the  abstract  vagueness  of  the  English  "  ruin  "  ; 
"  dedit  ruinam  "  is  "  fell  with  a  crash,"  not  merely  "  went 
to  ruin,"  Mr.  Conington's  poetical  version,  in  the  metre 
of  Scott's  "  Marmion,"  offers  good  material  for  a  dis- 
cussion of  the  question,  "  What  metre  in  English  will 
best  give  the  force  of  the  Latin  dactylic  hexameter  ?  " 

Careful  explanations  of  rhetorical  devices  —  metony- 
my, simile,  metaphor,  personification,  hendiadys,  and  the 
like  —  must  always  be  given,  or  the  student  is  likely  to 
imagine  that  the  poet  has  dragged  them  in  by  the  heels 
to  fill  out  space,  like  a  newspaper  reporter.  The  function, 
use,  and  abuse  of  these  devices  are  proper  adjuncts  of 
a  pupil's  knowledge  both  of  English  and  of  Latin. 

There  is  still  another  way  to  assist  appreciation  of  the 
"  ^Eneid  " :  namely,  a  study,  confined  to  reasonable  limits, 

112 


the  nature  of  the  Epic  in  general,  and  of  the  various 
eat  epic  poems  in  particular.  Let  the  teacher  sum- 
irize  Chapters  23  and  24  of  Aristotle's  "  Poetics  "  [text, 
inslation,  and  criticism  by  Butcher  —  Macmillan]  ;  and 
courage  the  pupils  to  draw  some  conclusions  of  their 
m  on  the  matter.  The  "  Iliad  "  and  the  "  Odyssey  " 
Homer ;  the  "  ^Eneid "  of  Vergil ;  the  "  Divine 
unedy  "  of  Dante ;  the  "  Niebelungen  Lied  " ;  and  Mil- 
l's "  Paradise  Lost "  should  be  rendered  familiar  to 
;  pupil  at  least  in  outline;  and  their  several  agreements, 
Terences,  and  relations  noted  in  reasonable  detail.  The 
:  of  the  poets  is  worth  perusing  with  care;  let  students 
serve,  for  example,  how  Vergil,  Dante,  and  Milton 
mge  at  once  in  medias  res  and  only  in  later  books  nar- 
te  events  from  their  very  beginning;  let  students  ob- 
•ve  how  the  interest  is  at  once  seized  and  kept  by  that 
vice  [as  also  in  Thackeray's  "  Vanity  Fair "  and 
.igo's  "  Hunchback  of  Notre  Dame  "]  ;  and  have  them 

*  this  knowledge  for  their  own  profit  in  their  English 
Tiposition. 

Longfellow's  "  Evangeline,"  which  is  usually  read  in 

*  earlier  years  at  school,  offers  an  interesting  com- 
rison  of  the  hexameter  in  English. 

I  trust  that  the  reader  will  not  imagine  that  I  am 
ascribing  more  than  can  be  given  in  the  time  allotted 
Latin  in  the  high-school  course.  Much  of  the  work 
lich  I  have  suggested  should  be  made  part  of  the  work 
English;  and  the  remainder  can  be  presented  easily 
devoting  to  it  one  period  every  three  or  four  weeks 
such  has  been  my  experience. 

Fn  accordance  with  our  desire  to  correlate  Latin  with 
ngs  in  modern  life  and  not  to  isolate  it  as  if  it  were 
alien  to  us  as  Chinese,  we  must  endeavor  to  give  some 
a,  however  limited,  of  the  vast  influence  exerted  by 
:rgil  on  English  literature;  nor  does  it  behoove  us  to 
5s  over  his  relation  to  his  own  time  and  the  authority 
lich  he  wielded  in  the  Middle  Ages. 


The  relation  of  Vergil  to  Augustus;  his  purpose  in 
writing  the  "  yEneid " ;  the  aid  given  by  him  to  the 
movement  for  securing  a  universal  peace  under  a  cen- 
tralized government,  after  the  fearful  decades  of  civil 
wars;  these  matters  are  adequately  treated  in  the  intro- 
ductions of  our  text-books,  and  more  comment  is  not 
needed. 

The  later  position  of  Vergil,  however,  fascinating  as 
it  is,  is  usually,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  quite  unknown  to 
teachers.  How  many  of  them  are  aware  that  he  ac- 
quired great  fame  as  a  prophet  of  the  birth  of  Christ, 
becoming  to  the  Christians  an  equal  authority  to  the 
Sibyls?  That  he  later  was  altered  in  character  and  was 
transformed  into  a  magician,  who  performed  divers  mar- 
vels throughout  the  Middle  Ages?  That  the  remnants 
of  this  belief  existed  to  within  very  recent  times  amon^ 
the  common  people  about  -Naples,  showing  how  widely 
his  reputation  had  spread  and  how  firmly  rooted  it  was  ? 
Certainly,  some  of  these  features  —  such  as  the  stories 
told  by  Gervasius  of  Tilbury  —  should  be  made  familiar 
to  the  pupils;  and  the  great  work  on  the  subject  is 
Comparetti's  "  Vergil  in  the  Middle  Ages  "  [translated 
by  Bernecke —  Macmillan  &  Co.],  with  which  every 
teacher  should  be  familiar,  and  extracts  of  which  may 
be  read  to  the  pupils  with  profit  and  amusement. 

Vergil's  influence  on  the  whole  of  modern  English 
literature  has  been  enormous  and  no  high-school  student 
could  begin  to  grasp  it  in  its  totality.  The  edition  of 
Allen  and  Greenough  gives  excellent  parallel  references ; 
so  does  Gayley,  in  his  "  Classic  Myths  in  English.  Litera- 
ture." In  the  case  of  two  poets,  however,  it  is  quite 
possible  for  our  pupil  to  make  a  somewhat  detailed  study 
of  Vergilian  influence.  I  refer  to  Milton  and  Tennyson  ; 
both  of  these  are  commonly  read  in  all  secondary  schools. 
Let  us  see  how  much  can  be  done  in  this  direction. 

"Lycidas,"  "  Comus,"  "  L'Allegro,"  "II  Penseroso," 
and  often  a  book  or  two  of  "  Paradise  Lost  "  are  gen- 

114 


rally  given  among  the  works  of  Milton  to  be  read  in 
le  senior  year.  How  these  can  be  correlated  with 
assical  mythology  and  literary  study  of  the  "  ^Eneid  " 
have  already  shown.  But  I  think  the  pupil  is  now 
lature  enough  to  go  a  little  farther;  and  he  can  ap- 
reciate  a  pamphlet  of  twenty-one  pages  by  Dr.  Max 
chlicht  "  On  the  Influence  of  the  Ancients  to  be  traced 
L  Milton's  Style  and  Language "  [Rosenberg,  O.  R. 
bege].  In  this  article,  well  adapted  to  the  compre- 
ension  of  a  boy  or  girl  seventeen  years  of  age,  will  be 
Hind  instances  of  the  classical  use  of  relative  pronouns 
i  Milton's  style;  of  the  employment  of  past  participle 
nd  noun  in  the  way  of  the  Latin  —  like  the  "  since 
reated  man"  [P.  L.  I,  573;  cf.  "post  urbem  condi- 
im]  ;  and  the  like.  Most  profitable  I  consider  the  list 
f  words  used  by  Milton  in  a  Latin  sense  [pp.  5-1 1]  ; 
ords  which  are  constantly  mistranslated  when  they  oc- 
.ir  in  Latin  authors.  Here  are  a  few  of  those  met  with 
i  Milton,  words  which  indicate  most  clearly  the  influence 
f  Vergil  and  other  Roman  poets : 

rown :  in  the  Latin  sense  of  coronare—"  to  fill  brimful." 
requent :  in  the  Latin  sense  of  frequens  =  "  crowded." 
retire:    (followed    by    "of")    in    the   Latin    sense    of 
securus  =  "  without  any  concern  about,  or  fear  of." 
ible :  in  the  original  sense  of  fabula  =  any  event  or  cir- 
cumstance generally  spoken  of,  whether  true  or  not. 
ix :  in  the  Latin  sense  of  laxus  =  "  wide,"  "  spacious  " 

[cf .  laxa  domus,  laxa  toga]  "  unconfined." 
.iin :  in  the  Latin  sense  of  ruina  =  "  a  fall  with  violence 

and  precipitation." 

btain :  in  the  Latin  sense  of  obtineo  =  "  keep,"  "  have," 
"  maintain  a  hold  on  "  (constantly  mistranslated  in 
Caesar). 

[NOTE:  The  teacher  may  find  it  interesting  to  read 
Miltons  Paradise  Lost  in  seinem  Verhaltnisse  zur 
^neide,  Ilias,  und  Odyssee "  —  von  Friedrich  Buff, 
liinchen,  Mintzel'sche  Buchdruckerei,  1904.  78  pages.] 


The  influence  of  Vergil  on  Tennyson  can  be  traced  in 
numerous  specific  instances;  and  indeed,  the  great  Eng- 
lish poet  has  confessed  his  debt  in  the  beautiful  tribute 
rendered  to  the  bard  of  Mantua : 

I  salute  thee,  Mantovano, 

I,  that  loved  thee  since  my  day  began ; 
Wielder  of  the  stateliest  measure 

ever  moulded  by  the  lips  of  man. 

This  specific  influence  is  presented  by  Wilfred  P. 
Mustard  in  a  suggestive  pamphlet  of  eleven  pages  en- 
titled "Tennyson  and  Vergil"  [Lord  Baltimore  Press. 
Baltimore.  Reprint  from  American  Journal  of  Philol- 
ogy, XX,  No.  2,  April,  May,  June,  1899].  This  article 
should  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  students,  if  only 
in  order  to  show  them  what  a  real  translation  of  Vergil 
is  like.  For  example:  this  in  the  "  Princess  "  (the  work 
usually  read  in  our  schools), 

"  Myriads  of  rivulets  hurrying  thro'  the  lawn  " 
is  a  real  translation,  faithful  to  the  original, 
et  tenuis  fugiens  per  gramina  rivus 

—  Georgics  IV,  19. 

usually  rendered  in  schools  by  "  the  small  river  running 
through  the  grass."    Note  also  the  following: 

Universal  Nature  moved  by  Universal  Mind 

—  from  the  Ode  to  Vergil. 
Mens  agitat  molem  —  ^Eneid   VI,  727. 

This  way  and  that  dividing  the  swift  mind. 

—  Sir  Bedivere,  in  the  Morte  d'Arthur. 
Atque  animum  nunc  hue  celerem,  nunc  dividit  illuc. 

-;£neid  IV,  285. 

116 


She  found  no  rest,  and  ever  failed  to  draw 
The  quiet  night  into  her  blood. 

—  "  Marriage  of  Geraint." 

neque  umquam 

solvitur  in  somnos  oculisque  aut  pectore  noctem 
accipit. 

—  ^Eneid  IV,  529-531. 

PART  II 

In  the  fourth  year  of  Latin  the  reader,  if  that  has 
een  used  for  the  sight  reading  and  for  wider  knowledge, 
lould  be  discarded  and  the  whole  texts  of  authors  put 
ito  the  hands  of  the  pupils ;  for  they  are  now  mature 
nough  not  to  be  reminded  that  they  are  still  children, 
•hich  fact  a  reader  generally  suggests.  Besides,  extracts 
sually  grow  very  unsatisfactory  after  two  or  three 
ears  and  a  craving  to  see  an  author  in  his  entirety 
sually  follows.  In  a  course  of  four  years  the  follow- 
ig  is  a  good  scheme  of  reading  for  the  last  year : 

Vergil  — JEneid  I,  II,  III,  IV. 

Pliny  —  Letters  —  VI,   16  and  20   (on  Vesuvius),  X, 
6  (on  the  Christians). 
Juvenal  — VIII  or  X. 

)r,  if  the  Latin  is  continued  for  five  years,  the  following: 

"ourth  Year:  as  above. 
rifth  Year:  ^neid  VI,  and 

Eclogues  IV  and  IX. 

Seneca  —  selections. 

Ovid  —  selections  (  Metamorphoses ) . 

Cicero  —  Milo. 

In  my  mind's  eye  I  can  see  teachers  raising  their 
lands  in  horror  at  the  suggestion  of  Pliny,  Juvenal,  and 
Seneca  for  students  in  secondary  schools.  "  The  vocabu- 
ary  is  surely  too  difficult,"  they  will  assert,  "  and  besides, 

117 


we  are  afraid  that  reading  these  authors  will  take  from 
our  pupils  the  time  which  they  should  spend  in  studying 
for  the  college  entrance  examinations."  As  to  the  latter 
objection,  I  can  say  that  my  pupils,  who  have  studied 
with  me  in  these  writers,  have  passed  their  entrance  ex- 
aminations in  90  per  cent  of  all  cases ;  and  as  to  vocabu- 
lary, they  found  no  difficulty.  A  fair  number  of  new 
words  are  met,  to  be  sure;  but  Latin  is  not  the  personal 
property  of  Cicero,  heretical  as  that  statement  may 
sound.  And  Pliny,  Juvenal,  and  Seneca  are,  by  the 
consensus  of  all  critics,  "  classical,"  though  it  is  true 
that  they  are  accorded  only  a  "  Silver "  Latinity,  not 
"  Golden,"  as  Cicero.  However,  what  they  lack  in  gilt, 
they  make  up  in  human  interest;  and  that  is  a  very 
pleasant  feature  to  all  except  doctors  of  philosophy. 

I.  C.  Plini  Gecili  Secundi  Epistularum  Libri  Novem. 
Epistularum  ad  Traianum  Liber.  Panegyricus.  Recog- 
novit  C.  F.  W.  Mueller.  (Teubner  —  Leipsig — M. 
i. 20). 

The  two  letters  on  the  eruption  of  Vesuvius,  of  which 
Pliny  was  a  personal  witness,  are  very  fascinating  to 
the  student,  especially  so  in  connection  with  Pompeii. 
The  letter  to  Trajan  on  the  Christians  holds  the  attention 
no  less;  and  the  pupil  can  acquire  a  correct  idea,  from 
an  original  source,  of  the  reasons  which  prompted  the 
Romans  to  persecute.  I  shall  quote  two  passages,  one 
from  VI,  16,  and  one  from  X,  96;  let  the  teacher  ask 
himself  whether  they  are  above  the  ability  of  any  fourth- 
year  student: 

[VI,  16]  :  Erat  favunculus  metis]  Miseni  classemque 
imperio  praesens  regebat.  Nonum  Kal.  Septembres  hora 
fere  septima  mater  mea  indicat  ei  apparere  nubem  in- 
visitata  et  magnitudine  et  specie.  Ustis  ille  sole,  mox 
frigida  gustaverat  iacens  studebatque;  poscit  soleas,  as- 
cendit  locum,  ex  quo  maxime  miraculum  illud  conspici 
poterat.  Nubes,  incertum  procul  intuentibus,  ex  quo 

118 


3nte  (Vesuvium  fuisse  postea  cognitum  est),  oriebatur, 
ius  similitudinem  et  formam  non  alia  magis  arbor 
lam  pinus  expresserit. 

[X,  96]  :  Nihil  aliud  inveni  quam  superstitionem 
avam  immodicam.  Ideo  dilata  cognitione  ad  consulen- 
im  te  decucurri.  Visa  est  enim  mihi  res  digna  con- 
Itatione,  maxime  propter  periclitantium  numerum. 
ulti  enim  omnis  aetatis,  omnis  ordinis,  utriusque  sexus 
iam  vocantur  in  periculum  et  vocabuntur. 

II.  Juvenalis    Satirarum   libri   quinque.      Recognovit 
F.  Hermann.     [Teubner,  M. —  .45]. 

The  tenth  satire  of  Juvenal  is  adapted  to  students  not 
ily  for  the  ethical  vigor  of  its  thoughts,  but  also 
rough  Johnson's  celebrated  imitation  of  it  entitled 
Fhe  Vanity  of  Human  Wishes."  The  eighth  is  not 
suitable,  although  it  contains  some  noble  lines.  What 
ipil  will  not  admire  the  loftiness  and  epigrammatic 
intedness  of  lines  like  these  (from  X)  : 

Orandum  est,  ut  sit  mens  sana  in  corpore  sano. 
Fortem  posce  animum,  mortis  terrore  carentem. 

id  verses  such  as  the  following  are  famous  in  literature : 

Cantabit  vacuus  coram  latrone  viator. 

Sed  quid 

Turba  Remi?    Sequitur  fortunam  ut  semper  et  odit 
Damnatos. 

Expende  Hannibalem :  quot  libras  in  duce  summo 
Invenies? 

III.  L.    Annaei    Senecae   opera   quse   supersunt.      ed. 
idericus  Haase.     [Teubner  —  Vol.  I.  M.  2.10;  Vol.  II, 
.  2.40;  Vol.  Ill,  M.  3.60]. 

The  rhetoric  of  Seneca  may  be  artificial ;  but  it  cer- 
nly  has  a  powerful  swing  to  it  and  a  moral  earnestness 
it  is  most  attractive.  Selections  such  as  the  follow- 
j1  are  adapted  to  fourth-year  students : 

119 


[Natur.  Quaest.  VII,  25]  :  Quid  ergo  miramur  cometaS, 
tarn  rarum  mundi  spectaculum,  nondum  teneri  legibus 
certis  nee  initia  illorum  finesque  notescere,  quorum  ex 
ingentibus  intervallis  recursus  est?  Nondum  sunt  anni 
mille  quingenti,  ex  quo  Graecia 

"  stellis  numeros  et  nomina  fecit " 

multae  hodieque  sunt  gentes,  quse  tantum  facie  noverunt 
ccelum,  quae  nondum  sciunt,  cur  luna  deficiat,  quare 
obumbretur.  haec  apud  nos  quoque  nuper  ratio  ad  cer- 
tum  duxit.  Veniet  tempus,  quo  ista,  quae  nunc  latent,  in 
lucem  dies  extrahat  et  longioris  aevi  diligentia. 

[de  Beneficiis  II,  29]  :  Quanto  satius  est  ad  contem- 
plationem  tot  tantorum  beneficiorum  reverti  et  agere 
gratias,  quod  nos  in  hoc  pulcherrimo  domicilio  [dei] 
voluerunt  secundas  sortiri,  quod  terrenis  prsef ecerunt  ? 
aliquis  ea  animalia  comparat  nobis,  quorum  potestas 
pene  nos  est?  Quicquid  nobis  negatum  est  dari  non 
potuit.  Proinde  quisquis  es  iniquus  aestimator  sortis 
humanae,  cogita,  quanta  nobis  tribuerit  parens  noster. 

(The  student  will  be  interested  to  know  that  Seneca 
was  the  brother  of  the  Gallio  mentioned  in  Acts  of  the 
Apostles  who  "  cared  for  none  of  these  things.") 


CHAPTER    VIII 

The  large  part  played  by  the  college  entrance  examina- 
tions in  shaping  the  work  of  secondary  schools  justifies 
a  brief  consideration  of  these. 

All  colleges  prescribe  some  definite  work;  this  con- 
sists usually  of  four  books  of  Caesar,  six  orations  of 
Cicero,  and  six  books  of  the  "  ^neid."  Sallust's  "  Cati- 
line "  and  some  of  the  "  Lives  "  of  Nepos  are  added 
occasionally.  Harvard  prescribes  reading  only  for  the 

<*  120 


imentary  test;  this  may  be  the  first  four  books  of  the 
Eneid,"  certain  of  Ovid's  "  Metamorphoses,"  or  cer- 
n  orations  of  Cicero.  Harvard  is  the  only  college  that 
ikes  its  paper  in  advanced  Latin  entirely  of  passages 

sight.  In  addition  to  tests  on  reading,  most  colleges 
fe  separate  examinations  in  grammar  and  composition. 
Not  a  single  college  gives  prescribed  work  in  German 

French ;  the  passages  set  for  translation  and  gram- 
ir  in  these  languages  are  all  at  sight.  I  fail  to  see 
ly  the  same  test  of  ability  should  not  hold  in  Latin 

in  French  and  German.  Translation  at  sight  is  the 
ly  real  way  of  discovering  what  the  pupil  has  ac- 
lirecl.  Examinations  consisting  of  prescribed  reading 
e  open,  moreover,  to  very  serious  objections;  objections 

obvious,  indeed,  that  they  are  patent  to  any  one  whose 
ental  vision  and  observation  of  facts  are  not  of  the 
nsity  that  seems  to  settle  like  a  fog  on  professors  of 
assical  Philology.  In  the  first  place,  every  teacher 
tows  that  any  boy  of  fair  ability  can  "  trot  out  "  pre- 
ribed  work  in  a  month  and  pass  the  examination 
.ndily.  I  have  seen  this  done  repeatedly.  The  same 
ings  have  been  set,  moreover,  for  so  many  years,  that 
ere  are  no  longer  many  passages  which  can  be  given 
:thout  danger  of  repeating  what  has  already  been  given 
L  other  papers;  at  the  same  time,  repetition  won't  do, 
cause  most  teachers  go  over  all  previous  tests  with 
eir  pupils.  It  follows  that  a  bright  boy  will  read  not 
•en  all  the  prescribed  work,  but  only  those  passages 
hich  there  is  a  fair  chance  that  he  will  meet.  The 
stem  is  a  God-send  for  private  tutors. 
Again :  the  consequence  of  colleges  fixing  the  reading 

that  teachers  are  mortally  afraid  of  reading  anything 
tt  the  definite  requirements;  and  the  splendid  oppor- 
nity  presented  thereby  to  "  cram "  pupils  is  seldom 
'glected.  Therefore  it  behooves  the  teacher  to  worry 
mself  into  nervous  tension  by  the  fear  lest  the  pupils 
)  not  pass. 

121  * 


All  this  is  the  more  ridiculous,  because  only  a  small  per 
cent  of  our  high-school  students  go  to  college;  and  for 
this  small  per  cent  the  others  are  confined  and  ham- 
mered into  a  narrow  compass.  The  few  have  no  right  to 
limit  the  horizon  of  the  majority.  It  passes  belief,  how 
headmasters  tacitly  allow  to  the  colleges  a  divine  right  to 
settle  matters  for  secondary  schools,  just  as  if  the  ulti- 
mate goal  of  all  our  pupils  were  to  write  a  thesis  "  On 
Kettles  and  Pots  during  the  Reign  of  Romulus." 

Yet  college  entrance  examinations  can  be  made  edu- 
cational tools  of  real  value,  if,  namely,  they  are  made 
true  tests  of  a  pupil's  knowledge  and  ability.  As  mat- 
ters now  stand,  Harvard  alone  offers  papers  which  any 
boy  who  has  done  his  work  from  year  to  year  reason- 
ably well  will  pass,  no  matter  what  he  has  read,  if  he 
has  read  enough.  But  it  is  not  so  in  the  case  of  the 
colleges  which  set  examinations  on  definite  prescribed 
work.  A  boy  may  have  excellent  ability  and  yet  not  be 
able  to  do  justice  to  a  Yale  paper  on  Cicero,  if  he  has 
not  read  the  particular  orations  given ;  for  these  passages 
are  too  difficult,  too  much  to  require  as  tests  in  power 
to  read  at  sight. 

A  good  entrance  examination  will  test  two  things  in 
particular:  I.  The  ability  of  a  student  to  render  into 
idiomatic  English  an  accurate  translation  of  a  passage 
which  he  has  never  seen.  This  passage  should  contain 
no  unusual  words  (unless  their  meaning  is  given  in 
notes)  and  no  uncommon  constructions.  It  should  aim 
also  to  test  the  student's  reasoning  power.  II.  The 
pupil's  knowledge  of  Latin  grammar.  To  these  we  may 
add,  perhaps,  a  connected  narrative,  containing  simple 
sentences,  to  be  translated  into  Latin.  Whether  there 
ought,  in  addition,  be  questions  testing  the  candidate's 
knowledge  of  antiquities  and  literature,  is  a  question  that 
I  am  inclined  to  answer  in  the  negative.  An  adequate 
test  would  demand  too  much  time;  and  no  entrance 

122 


ipers  should  stretch  beyond  three  hours.  We  must 
>sume  that  teachers  shall  have  done  their  duty  during 
le  years  of  the  secondary  school  course. 
As  an  illustration  of  what  I  consider  a  good  examina- 
on,  I  shall  append  the  entrance  papers  set  by  Harvard 
i  June,  1909.  The  preliminary  test  is  divided  into  two 
arts,  the  first  (A)  consisting  of  a  passage  at  sight,  with 
.testions  on  the  text  and  some  composition;  the  second 
B)  embracing  the  prescribed  work  (option  of  Vergil, 
>vid,  or  Cicero).  And  first  we  shall  look  at  A: 

A 

I.     TRANSLATE  :  — 

[The  Roman  army,  under  the  consul  Flaminius,  falls 
ito  a  Carthaginian  ambush  by  Lake  Trasimenus.] 

Flaminius  cum  pridie  solis  occasu  ad  lacum  per- 
venisset,  postero  die  vixdum1  satis  certa  luce  angustiis 
superatis,  postquam  in  patentiorem  campum  pandi2 
agmen  coepit,  id  tantum  hostium  quod  ex  adverse 

5  erat  conspexit ;  ab  tergo  ac  super  caput  non  detectae 
insidise.  Hannibal  ubi,  id  quod  petierat,  clausum  lacu 
ac  montibus  et  circumfusum  suis  copiis  habuit  hostem, 
signum  omnibus  dat  simul  invadendi.  Romanis  subita 
atque  improvisa  res  fuit,  quod  orta  ex  lacu  nebula3 

o  campo  quam  montibus  densior  sederat.  Consul  cla- 
more  prius  undique  orto  quam  satis  cerneret,4  se  cir- 
cumventum  esse  sensit,  et  in  frontem  lateraque  pug- 
nari  coeptum  est  antequam  satis  instrueretur  acies 
aut  expediri  arma  stringique  gladii  possent.  Sed 

5  perculsis5  omnibus  ipse  satis  impavidus  turbatos  or- 
dines  instruit,  ut  tempus  locusque  patitur,  et  quacun- 
que  adire  audirique  potest,  adhortatur  ac  stare  ac 
pugnare  iubet.  Sed  prse°  strepitu  ac  tumultu  nee 
consilium  nee  imperium  accipi  poterat ;  et  erat  in  tanta 

123 


2O  caligine7  maior  usus  aurium  quam  oculorum.  Ad 
gemitus  vulneratorum  ictusque  armorum  et  mixtos 
strepentium  paventiumque  clamores  circumferebant 
ora  oculosque 

1  scarcely  yet.    2  to  spread  out.    3  mist.    4  he  could  see. 
5  dismayed.      6  on  account  of.      '  darkness. 

II.  (a)  Give  the  principal  parts  of  circumfusum 
(7),  orta  (9),  stringi  (14),  patitur  (16). 

(b)  Write  out  the  following  words  and  mark  the 
quantities  of  their  penults  and  final  syllables:  copiis  (7), 
sederat  (10),  clamor e  (10),  cerneret  (n). 

(r)  Decline  in  full  ca/wf  (5),  and  ipse.  (15),  and  in 
the  plural  locus  (16)  in  the  sense  it  has  here.  Write  the 
future  indicative  active  in  all  persons  of  pervenisset  (i). 
Write  the  present  subjunctive  in  all  persons  of  orta  (9). 
Decline  in  full  and  compare  maior  (20). 

(d)  Explain  fully  the  derivation  of  adverse  (4),  cir- 
cumfusum  (7). 

(e)  Explain  the  case  of  super  at  is  (3),  campiim  (3), 
hostium   (4),  copiis  (7),  invadendi  (8),  campo   (10). 

(/)  Explain  the  mood  of  pervenisset  (i),  the  tense 
of  petierat  (6),  the  mood  of  circumventum  esse  (12), 
instrueretur  (13). 

(</)     Translate  into  Latin  the  following  passage :  — 

Hannibal  thought  that  if  he  occupied  the  mountains  he 
should  overcome  the  Romans.  Flaminius  did  not  send 
men  to  see  the  nature  of  the  country.  He  was  so  care- 
less (negligens)  that  he  did  not  know  where  the  enemy 
were;  but  when  they  attacked  him  he  fought  bravely. 

This  passage  is  set  for  students  who  have  had  three 
years  of  Latin ;  and  it  seems  to  me  a  real  test  of  their 
ability.  The  vocabulary  presents  no  words  which  a  pupil 
will  not  have  found  frequently  in  Caesar;  the  meanings 
of  more  unusual  words  are  given.  The  constructions  are 
simple.  But  note  the  various  tests  of  accuracy.  '  Tan- 

124 


im  "  in  line  4  means  "  merely,"  not  "  so  great  " ;  the 
indidate  must  reason,  in  line  6,  whether  ub'i  means 
where"  or  "when";  in  line  16,  ut  is  followed  by  the 
dicative  and  means  "  as/'  not  "  that."  At  least  half 
t  the  pupils,  not  having  been  trained  to  use  their  eyes, 
ill  confuse  annum  (20)  with  aurum  and  ora  (24),  the 
ural  of  os  with  ora,  genitive  ores. 

Of  the  grammar  questions,  I  would  omit  (&)  and  (d)  ; 
it  especially  (d),  since  no  one  is  fitted  to  give  really 
ientific  explanations  of  word  formation  until  he  has 
astered  a  language  completely.  Nor  do  I  consider  a 
icstion  like  the  one  on  campo  (10)  fair;  for  it  is  an  ex- 
:ption  to  a  .rule.  It  is  hard  enough  for  students  to  get 
lies,  without  bothering  them  with  the  exceptions. 
The  composition  consists  of  simple  sentences,  involving 
^ry  common  constructions.  There  are  no  frills,  and 
style  "  is  not  demanded.  For  myself,  I  wish  compo- 
tion  were  optional,  as  it  is  on  the  Advanced  Greek 
iper. 
Here  is  the  second  part  of  the  elementary  examination : 

B 

Take  one  only  of  the  following;  I  or  II  or  III. 
I.     TRANSLATE  :  — 

[Virgil,  "^Eneid,"  4,  457-468.] 

Praeterea  fuit  in  tectis  de  marmore  templum 
58  coniugis  antiqui,  miro  quod  honore  colebat, 
velleribus  niveis  et  festa  fronde  revinctum: 
hinc  exaudiri  voces  et  verba  vocantis 
visa  viri,  nox  cum  terras  obscura  teneret, 
solaque  culminibus  ferali  carmine  bubo 
saepe  queri  et  longas  in  fletum  ducere  voces ; 
multaqtie  prseterea  vatuin  praedicta  priorum 
terribili  monitu  horrificant.    Agit  ipse  furentem 

125 


in  somnis  ferus  yEneas,  semperque  relinqui 
sola  sibi,  semper  longam  incomitata  videtur 
ire  viam  et  Tyrios  deserta  quaerere  terra. 

Who  is  meant  by  coniugis  antiqui  (458)  ?  Where  was 
Tyre?  Explain  the  causes  of  Dido's  flight  from  Tyre. 
What  part  does  Juno  take  in  the  story  of  the  first  four 
books  of  the  "  ^neid  "  ? 

Quote  any  passage  of  English  poetry  of  which  the 
above  passage  reminds  you. 

II.  TRANSLATE  :  — 

[Ovid,   Metam.  4,  685-696.] 

Saepius  instanti,  sua  ne  delicta  fateri 
nolle  videretur,  nomen  terraeque  suumque, 
quantaque  maternae  fuerit  fiducia  formae, 
indicat.     Et  nondum  memoratis  omnibus  unda 
insonuit,  veniensque  inmenso  belua  ponto 
imminet,  et  latum  sub  pectore  possidet  sequor. 
Conclamat  virgo.     Genitor  lugubris  et  una 
mater  adest,  ambo  miseri,  sed  iustius  ilia. 
Nee  secum  aiixilium,  sed  dignos  tempore  fletus 
plangoremque  f erunt,  vinctoque  in  corpora  adhserent : 
cum  sic  hospes  ait :  "  Lacrimarum  longa  manere 
tempora  vos  poterunt.     Ad  opem  brevis  hora  feren- 
dam  est." 

Why  was  Andromeda  bound  here  by  the  seashore? 
Quote  any  passage  from  Milton  of  which  the  third  line 
above  reminds  you.  What  were  the  names  of  her 
mother,  father,  and  deliverer?  Tell  what  you  know 
about  her  deliverer. 

III.  TRANSLATE  :  — 

[Cicero,  Catiline,  4,  9.] 

Nunc,  patres  conscripti,  ego  mea  video  quid  intersit : 
si  eritis  secuti  sententiam  C.  Qesaris,  quoniam  hanc  is  in 

126 


republica  viam  quae  popularis  habetur  secutus  est,  f  ortasse 
minus  erunt  (hoc  auctore  et  cognitore  huiusce  sen- 
tentiae)  mihi  populates  impetus  pertimescendi ;  sin  illam 
alteram,  nescio  an  amplius  mihi  negoti  contrahatur.  Sed 
tamen  meorum  periculorum  rationes  utilitas  rei  publicae 
vincat.  Habemus  enim  a  Caesare,  sicut  ipsius  dignitas  et 
maiorum  eius  amplitudo  postulabat,  sententiam  tamquam 
obsidem  perpetuae  in  rem  publicam  voluntatis.  Intellec- 
tum  est  quid  interesset  inter  levitatem  contionatorum  et 
animum  vere  popularem,  saluti  populi  consulentem. 

What  was  the  proposal  which  Cicero  advocated  in  this 
oration  ?  Give  a  brief  account  of  Caesar.  What  was  his 
proposal  about  the  conspirators?  What  important  prin- 
ciple of  the  popular  party  was  he  trying  to  maintain? 
Why  does  Cicero  anticipate  danger  for  himself?  Tell 
how  the  anticipation  came  true. 

The  Advanced  Latin  paper,  for  those  who  have  had 
at  least  four  years  of  Latin,  contains  only  unseen  work; 
a  passage  of  poetry,  one  of  prose,  and  composition.  Here 
is  the  poetry : 

C 

I.     TRANSLATE  :  — 

[The  poet  Tibullus  imagines  his  own  death  and  burial, 
and  the  beauty  of  the  Elysian  fields  to  which  his  spirit 
goes,  with  other  faithful  lovers.] 

Quod  si  fatales  iam  nunc  explevimus  annos, 

f ac  lapis  inscriptis  stet  super  ossa  notis : 
"  Hie  iacet  immiti  consumptus  morte  Tibullus, 

Messalam  terra  dum  sequiturque  mari." 
5  Sed  me,  quod  facilis  tenero  sum  semper  Amori, 

ipsa  Venus  campos  ducet  in  Elysios. 
Hie  choreae  cantusque  vigent,  passimque1  vagantes 

dulce  sonant  tenui  gutture2  carmen  aves; 
fert  casiam3  non  culta  seges,  totosque  per  agros 

127 


io       floret  odoratis  terra  benigna  rosis ; 

ac  iuvenum  series4  teneris  immixta5  puellis 

ludit,  et  adsidue  proelia6  miscet  Amor. 
Illic  est  cuicunque  rapax  Mors  venit  amanti, 
et  gerit  insigni  myrtea  serta7  coma. 

TIBULLUS:  Carmina,  I,  3,  53-66. 

land  everywhere.      -throat.      3a  fragrant  plant.      4a  line. 
5  in  company  with.     G  contra-dances.     "  garlands. 

Write  out  verses  3  and  7.  Divide  them  into  feet  and 
mark  the  quantities  and  chief  caesuras. 

Explain  the  mood  of  stet  (2). 

The  questions  are  brief  and  appropriate.  It  should  be 
observed  that  the  grammar  questions  on  the  Advanced 
Latin  are  tests  of  the  student's  reasoning  power;  rules 
will  not  help  him.  Unless  he  knows  the  fact  that  all 
subjunctives  express  either  desire  (optative)  or  merely 
a  possibility  (potential),  and  that  from  these  primary 
uses  all  uses  of  the  mood  spring,  he  will  not  be  able  to 
explain  stet  (2).  I  append  the  rest  of  the  paper: 

II.     TRANSLATE  :  — 

[Cicero  tries  to  rouse  the  prejudice  of  a  jury  against 
some  Gallic  witnesses,  by  claiming  that  the  Gauls  are 
opposed  to  religion  and  will  not  keep  an  oath  to  give  true 
testimony.] 

An  vero  istas  nationes  religione  iuris  iurandi  ac 
metu  deorum  immortalium  in  testimoniis  dicendis 
commoveri  arbitramini,  quae  tantum  a  ceterarum  gen- 
tium more  ac  natura  dissentiunt?  quod  ceterae  pro 
5  religionibus  suis  bella  suscipiunt,  istae  contra  omnium 
religiones ;  illae  in  bellis  gerendis  ab  dis  immortalibus 
pacem  ac  veniam  petunt,  istae  cum  ipsis  dis  immor- 
talibus bella  gesserunt;  hae  sunt  nationes  quae  quon- 
dam tarn  longe  ab  suis  sedibus  Delphos  usque  ad 

128 


Apollinem  Pythium  atque  ad  oraculum  orbis  terrae 
vexandum  ac  spoliandum  prof ectse  sunt ;  ab  isdem 
gentibus  obsessum  Capitolium  est  atque  ille  lupiter, 
cuius  nomine  maiores  nostri  vinctam1  testimoniorum 
fidem2  esse  voluerunt.  Postremo  his  quicquam  sanc- 
tum ac  religiosum  videri  potest,  qui  etiamsi  quando 
aliquo  metu  adducti  deos  placandos  esse  arbitrantur, 
humanis  hostiis3  eorum  aras  ac  templa  funestant4? 
ut  ne  religionem  quidem  colere  possint  nisi  earn  ipsam 
prius  scelere  violarint.  —  CICERO:  Pro  Fonteio}  30,  31. 

secured.    2  trustworthiness.     3  (from  hostia)  victims. 
4  disgrace. 

kVhat  is  the  difference  between  illae  (6),  istae  (7),  and 
?  (8)  ?  Explain  the  case  of  Delphos  (9)  and  the  ab- 
:ce  of  a  preposition  with  it.  Explain  the  mood  of 
•sint  (18)  and  the  tense  of  violarint  (19). 

II.     TRANSLATE  INTO  LATIN  :  — 

ricero  himself  was  willing  to  use  the  testimony  of 
.ils.  For  Lentulus  had  asked  some  Gallic  ambassadors 
take  a  message  to  their  fellow  countrymen.  When 
se  ambassadors  had  left  the  city,  Cicero  sent  an  armed 
ce  which  arrested  them.  The  next  day  he  brought 
Gauls  into  the  senate  and  asked  them  what  Lentulus 
[  said.  They  declared  that  he  had  told  them  to  send 
airy  into  Italy,  promising  that  he  would  supply  in- 
itry.  They  also  testified  that  he  expected  to  be  king 
Rome,  and  they  told  about  a  plan  to  burn  the  city 
I  kill  the  citizens.  There  is  no  doubt  that  this  testi- 
ny  greatly  injured  Lentulus.  —  Based  on  CICERO  :  In 
tilinam,  III,  4-10. 
[une,  1909. 

~OF 

UNIVERSITY 

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